Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay told reporters in Ankara on Jan. 23 that the new peace process with Kurdish nationalists “is being handled as transparent as possible.” According to Turkey’s main opposition, however, there is nothing at all “transparent” about this process.

“No one briefed us about these talks with [imprisoned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah] Ocalan. So how could these talks be transparent?” asked Faruk Logoglu, deputy chairman of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Turkey’s main political opposition. During an extensive interview with Al-Monitor on Jan. 25, Logoglu stressed that the government needs to brief the parliament if it is sincere about a transparent process.

In this context, Logoglu mentioned CHP’s proposal to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in June 2012 concerning an approach for disarming the PKK as well as the Kurdish issue. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had complained at the time that the CHP had failed to offer anything concrete that could help end the bloodshed in the country. Logoglu countered, “The prime minister was right. We did not offer a solution. But we paved the way to reach a national consensus. We basically talked about establishing a mechanism where everyone that matters — in the parliament and outside — could contribute to the solution.”

Here Logoglu was referring to CHP's proposal to form a committee on societal consensus in the parliament as well as a council of “wise men” that would also include influential, non-elected representatives of the people with the ability to constructively affect the outcome of the talks. Logoglu stressed that he did not know Erdogan’s solution to Turkey’s Kurdish issue.