Lauded negotiator eyes hopes for peace in Turkey’s Southeast

Lauded negotiator eyes hopes for peace in Turkey’s Southeast

A Nobel Peace Prize winner who played an instrumental role in the process of disarming the Irish Republican Army has come to Turkey at a critical time to meet with government and Kurdish representatives.
“In the aftermath of the referendum, we wanted to meet both civil-society representatives and the government and did not want to constrain our visit just to Ankara and Istanbul; we wanted to come to Diyarbak?r,” former Finnish President Martti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari told reporters during his meeting Wednesday with Osman Baydemir, the mayor of the southeastern city.
“These visits are important to strike out prejudices,” Ahtisaari said, adding that he wanted to visit other Turkish cities as well.
Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, had previously recommended a committee of wise men – including the Nobel Peace Prize winner Ahtisaari – be formed as part of efforts to solve Turkey’s Kurdish issue.
“We came here to learn. I will keep silent and listen to you. This is a visit for observation both for me and my colleagues,” Ahtisaari said Wednesday. The former Finnish president, who served as a weapons inspector during the IRA disarmament process and is known for playing a negotiator role in various clashes, is leading an independent commission on Turkey.
His delegation to Turkey, which issued reports in 2004 and 2009 regarding Turkey’s EU accession negotiations, includes former European deputy from Italy Emma Bonino, former Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Hans van den Broek, former Austrian Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Albert Rohan and former Spanish Foreign Minister Oreja Aguirre.
“We will do anything we can in order to carry out the negotiation process of Turkey with the EU as the other candidates have done,” Ahtisaari told reporters in Diyarbak?r.
The delegation was planning to meet pro-Kurdish politicians Ahmet Türk and Aysel Tu?luk after the Daily News went to press Wednesday. Ahtisaari is also expected to meet with President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an on Thursday in Istanbul.

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