The Turkish main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) said on March 16 that it would be ready to support the ongoing peace talks between the Turkish government and the imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, provided that four conditions are met, Hurriyet Daily News reports.
The process has to be conducted legally, transparently, with honesty and without secret agendas, Hurriyet cites the CHP's spokesperson, Haluk Koç, as saying. Koç said that the concerns were unanimously accepted by the lawmakers, who participated in the closed-door party meeting that lasted around four hours.
"We warn Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that if the conditions are not met, the disillusions and lack of a solution will be paid with a heavy price," Koç is quoted as saying. As the first party to raise the problem and defended a pacific resolution in 1989, the CHP has plenty to back its decision on whether or not to lend their support to the process, he added.
The CHP's insistence on the legality of the process is mainly related to the involvement of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) as a facilitator of the talks, Hürriyet notes. CHP's leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu had previously said that the MİT should have been tasked by law to perform this duty, the news agency informs.
