ANKARA
A senior Kurdish politician has described President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's claim that Turkey never had a Kurdish “problem” as a "political maneuver" ahead of June’s general election.
On Sunday, in a speech in Turkey’s western Balikesir province, Erdogan said: "There is no Kurdish problem anymore. What else do you [Kurds] want?"
Selahattin Demirtas, leader of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party, claimed that Erdogan tried to set an agenda with the purpose of making propaganda, saying:
"These are discourses before the election. Erdogan is not speaking as he wants in electoral terms," he told reporters at his party headquarters.
Parliamentary elections will be held in June 2015.
Demirtas also said that Turkey has freedom and democratization problems, adding: "The most important problems are authority and dictatorship in Turkey. The name of the problem is the AK Party. According to us it is Turkey's most serious problem."
The "solution process" officially began in 2013 in an effort to bring an end to the decades-old conflict with the outlawed PKK, which is listed by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union as a terrorist organization.
Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union list the PKK as a terrorist organization.
