, to urge his outlawed group to lay down its arms, according to a recent survey conducted by an İstanbul-based think tank.){kind=link}
A majority of Turkish people disapprove of a call made by a far-right politician to Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), to urge his outlawed group to lay down its arms, according to a recent survey conducted by an İstanbul-based think tank.
Spectrum House released its “Perceptions and Political Trends Regarding the Kurdish Issue” on its website on Thursday.
The “Kurdish issue,” a term prevalent in Turkey’s public discourse, refers to the demand for equal rights by the country’s Kurdish population and their struggle for recognition.
As part of the survey respondents were asked about their views on a wide range of issues related to the settlement of the Kurdish conflict including a recent call from Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, a key ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to Öcalan.
Bahçeli surprised many when he suggested in October that if prison restrictions imposed on Öcalan were lifted, he could appear at the party group meeting of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) and declare the dissolution of the PKK, signaling an end to decades of violence.
The PKK, designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies, has been waging a bloody war in Turkey’s southeast since 1984. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict.
In his call, backed by Erdoğan as a “historic opportunity” to resolve the Kurdish issue, Bahçeli also suggested that if Öcalan takes this step, there could be legislative action to pave the way for his possible release.
The survey, based on a survey of 2,028 people across Turkey conducted between November 25 and December 3, showed that 58.5 percent of participants considered the MHP leader’s call “wrong,” while only 21.4 percent said it was “right.”
The survey results found that 59.3 percent of participants believe the Kurdish issue is an important problem for Turkey.
When asked, “Who should be consulted on behalf of the Kurds to resolve the Kurdish issue?” the highest percentage of the respondents, 25 percent, referred to the people and NGOs.” Other responses included Kurdish leaders at 18.9 percent, all political parties at 14.3 percent and the DEM Party at 5.4 percent.
While 70.8 percent of participants believe that a third-party/mediator country should not be involved in resolving the Kurdish issue, 53.4 percent said that the media’s stance on it is “biased.”
To a question asking which party could solve the Kurdish issue, 39 percent of participants chose the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), followed by 26.8 percent for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), 9.8 percent for the MHP and 8.4 percent for the DEM Party.
When asked to comment on the CHP’s policies regarding the resolution of the Kurdish issue, only 16.2 percent of participants responded with “sufficient,” while 70.9 percent replied with “insufficient” or “the CHP has no policy.”
The survey results also showed that the CHP would have had a nationwide vote of 32.4 percent, while support for the AKP, which has been ruling Turkey as a single-party government since 2002, would have been 31.3 percent, if a general election were to have been held in December.