Talk about being for it before being against it. That has been the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government’s position on the need for parliamentary supervision over the talks aiming to end the three decade long Kurdish armed movement in Turkey. For example, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan argued up until few days ago that any parliamentary involvement would be risking to legitimize the separatist Kurdish terrorist organization Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). He said on March 29: “It’s the government that bears full responsibility [for these talks.]” On April 3, however, AKP proposed to form a parliamentary “commission to evaluate the resolution process.” On Thursday [April 4] both opposition parties flatly turned down the request to participate in this “investigative commission.”
Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag strongly criticized the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) for their decision. “It’s tremendously a wrong approach to say that 'we’re not going to participate to the commission' on such a [critical] issue,” he said.