Erdoğan backs far-right ally’s outreach to Kurds

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday extended full support for his nationalist ally’s appeal to Turkey’s Kurds, saying it opened a “window of opportunity,” Agence France-Presse reported.

Last week Devlet Bahçeli, who heads Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), extended a shock olive branch to Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), inviting him to parliament to renounce terror and disband his group.

Öcalan has been jailed in a high-security prison on İmralı Island in the Sea of Marmara since 1999.

Soon after this appeal, Turkey was shaken by an attack on the headquarters of state-owned defense contractor TAI that killed five and injured 22.

The PKK claimed responsibility.

Several days later, Bahçeli spoke of the brotherhood of Turks and Kurds and said, “Turks and Kurds must love each other, this is both a religious and a political obligation for both sides.”

Addressing lawmakers from his ruling Justice and Development Party (PKK) in parliament on Wednesday, Erdoğan gave full backing to Bahçeli.

In the MHP leader’s remarks, the Turkish people see “the window of historic opportunity that has opened before us, and are excited,” he said.

“My dear Kurdish brothers, we expect you to firmly grasp [Bahçeli’s] sincerely outstretched hand,” Erdoğan said, urging them to join in efforts to build what he called the “century of Turkey.”

“If God gives us the opportunity, we intend to … remove [the conflict with the Kurds] entirely from the national agenda,” he said, expressing hope it would be the “crowning achievement” of his political career.

But his appeal was not directed at the “terror barons” in Iraq and Syria, he stressed.

The PKK, which has waged an on-off insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, is designated as a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.

In retaliation for last Wednesday’s attack, the Turkish army has bombed PKK targets in Iraq and Syria.