Turkey's govt to send bills on Kurdish opening to Parliament

The Turkish interior minister said on Friday that the government would send a bill on the democratic initiative to the parliament in the following week.

"Democratic initiative" refers to Kurdish opening.

Turkey's Interior Minister Besir Atalay said that there was actually a bill on the democratic initiative at the parliament.

"We will send new bills to the parliament next week, and I will make them public on the second or third day of the week," he told reporters.

Also, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the national unity and brotherhood project was a state project, not a project of his Justice & Development (AK) Party.

Erdogan said, "this is not a regional or local problem. Nobody can define it as the problem of our citizens of Kurdish origin because this process is not only related with our citizens of Kurdish origin."

The prime minister said fight against terrorism was the priority, and Turkey would never make concessions of the fight against terrorism.

Erdogan said all ethnic groups in Turkey had problems, and the government was dealing with them and solve them.

Also, Erdogan said citizens of different beliefs or sects had problems, and his government would be in an efforts to minimize and overcome them.

Erdogan said the government was holding Alevi workshops, and had almost come to an end.

"We will issue circulars in the short term, pass laws in the medium term, and make constitutional amendments in the long term and take required steps," Erdogan also said.

On July 22, 2009, Erdogan announced his government initiated a move to deal with Kurdish issue and the Ministry of Interior was assigned with the coordination of this task.

A week later, Interior Minister Besir Atalay said their government believed the Kurdish issue would be solved with an egalitarian approach through democratization.

On November 3, 2009, the government submitted a motion foreseeing a general debate at the parliament on all aspects of the "democratic initiative" process.

The parliament held its preliminary debate on the motion on November 10, 2009.

/World Bulletin/