Kurdish conference in Istanbul: Sinn Féin urges Turkey to open dialogue

Sinn Féin's Joe Reilly

TURKEY should open a dialogue with the Kurdish people to try and resolve the conflict with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that has claimed 45,000 lives since 1984, Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle member and Meath County Councillor Joe Reilly has said in Istanbul.

Joe, a former Mayor of Navan and ex-prisoner who has been involved in the Irish Peace Process, has been in Istanbul to attend a conference on the Kurdish issue.

He told the Hürriyet Daily News and Economic Review, Turkey’s oldest English-language daily:

A conflict can only end with victory for one side or dialogue between the two.

I did not come to Turkey to tell the Turks or Kurds how they should sort out the problems; that would be rather arrogant of me.

Instead, I hope to share information about how the Peace Process in Ireland developed and how it transformed both the Irish Republican Army and the country itself.

Ireland learned from the African experience. Perhaps others may learn from the Irish experience too.

Joe was speaking after giving an address to the conference organised  by the leftist Equality and Democracy Party. In Turkey, pro-Kurdish political parties are shut down, there is state repression and media censorship. The lessons of the Irish experience were retold by Joe Reilly.

It is very important to let the people determine who will represent them in any talks.

People should be honest with each other and themselves in a peace process. They do not have to like each other.

Part of the mentality of war is that you demonise your opponent.

The language used is one of the things that must change for conflict to come to an end.

How can there be dialogue if you do not know what your opponent is thinking?