During his visit to Yeniden Refah (New Welfare) Party Chairman Fatih Erbakan on Friday, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chairman Özgür Özel commented on Abdullah Öcalan’s ‘Call for Peace and Democratic Society’, made public by the DEM Party İmralı Delegation on February 27.

Özel said: “The Kurdish question cannot be resolved by Erdoğan abandoning what he said in the past and saying 'there is no Kurdish question’ while the Kurds in the country express the existence of this issue. In order to come up with a solution to this question, it is absolutely necessary to carry out work in the Parliament in which no party is excluded and civil society and all segments of society are represented. The beginning and end of this work is democratization.”

Calling on the government to take responsibility, Özel said: “The citizens of the Republic of Turkey know and see what is what. I do not find it right for a ruling party and the President of the country to mock the senses of the nation in 2025. This is not a nation that can be deceived like this, and whose intelligence can be underestimated. If you are going to do a job, you should take responsibility for it and show courage. The nation has given you the duty and the authority to do so.”

Özel stated that they are not shirking their duty regarding the new process and drew attention to the role and silence of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. 

The CHP leader said: “The positions of the actors are clear. The position of one person, however, seems to be unclear. He knows everything, but he pretends to be a grandfather who hears when it suits him and is deaf when it doesn't. Sincerity is needed now. Everyone knows where you are in this process. You are right at the heart of it. You should leave aside your secret agenda and ensure sincerity, openness and transparency. Are we going to wait for a child to come out and shout that the king is naked? No one should deceive anyone. We find it extremely insincere how Recep Tayyip Erdoğan conducts secret agenda negotiations, stays on the sidelines and follows the process cowardly and puts all the political risk on the back of his partner, seeking to benefit from the process politically if it turns out to provide an advantage. He should be clear, open, and brave.”

“For the benefit of the people in the country, if there will be no bloodshed, if people's faces will smile, if mothers will not cry, if peace will come, if Kurds will get rid of the problems they are experiencing, if they will feel themselves as full and equal citizens of this country, we are there,” Özel concluded.