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Abdullah GÃ¼l supports talks with BDP to avoid deadlock on Kurdish issue

19 October 2012 04:18 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Turkish President Abdullah GÃ¼l has said dialogue is vital to avoid a deadlock in the country’s Kurdish issue, implicitly confirming that he had talks with deputies from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), APA reports quoting Today’s Zaman.
GÃ¼l’s remarks came on Thursday in response to a news report the same day which claimed that the president received a delegation from the BDP at the Ã‡ankaya presidential palace on Oct. 9. GÃ¼l received the BDP’s Pervin Buldan, SÄ±rrÄ± SÃ¼reyya Ã–nder and the BDP-backed Mardin independent Ahmet TÃ¼rk, according to a news report that appeared in the Yeni Åžafak daily on Thursday.

â€œIt is not correct to make out an extraordinarily new situation from this claim, but I would like to remind people that these are Turkey’s most significant issues. If we failed to see that these issues are the most vital issues of Turkey, we would make a great mistake,â€ GÃ¼l told reporters in Ankara.

Otherwise, GÃ¼l continued, â€œif these issues are left unaddressed, they can go in unexpected ways and hit dead ends.â€

During the meeting, GÃ¼l reportedly appealed to the BDP members to act with a sense of responsibility in the period ahead, which sources say he described as of crucial importance in formulating a solution to the Kurdish question. The president reportedly told the BDP delegation to avoid scenes such as an incident that took place in August of this year, when some BDP deputies met with a group of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists and embraced them after chatting with them for a while. The meeting was recorded on film and distributed widely, sparking public outrage at the BDP deputies. The BDP members’ vehicle was pulled over at a PKK roadblock in the Åžemdinli district of Hakkari, but critics say the meeting appeared to be the result of a prior arrangement.

GÃ¼l told the BDP deputies that acts of this nature were highly provocative and infuriating for large segments of society. â€œYou understand the effect of such acts on society,â€ he is reported to have said.