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Turkish-PKK Peace Process Faces Deadlines

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s peace process with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is complicated by his domestic political agenda.
Selahattin Demirtas, co-chairman of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) answers a question during a Reuters interview in Berlin April 15, 2013. A top Kurdish politician said on Monday it would be difficult for Kurdish fighters to disarm before leaving Turkey under a peace process, stressing that the key issue was that they depart peacefully without contact with the Turkish military. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government is seeking a weapons-free pullout by militants of the Kurdistan Workers
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“We are on the eve of two utterly critical dates.” These words belong to one of the key players in Turkey’s fragile peace process with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). In this context, “dates” most certainly translates as “deadlines.”

Based on Aug. 15 statements by Abdullah Ocalan, the outlawed armed movement’s jailed leader, Selahattin Demirtas, co-chair of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), the PKK’s political wing, conveyed the message that pressure from the Kurdish issue will be increasing on Turkey's already loaded political agenda.

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