Turkish government takes break in Kurdish initiative

26/10/2009

ANKARA, Turkey -- The government has decided to re-evaluate its initiative to give more rights to the Kurdish minority and postponed the return of a second group of terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) members, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying Saturday (October 24th). The pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) announced last week that 15 PKK members were expected to arrive in Istanbul from Europe on October 28th, where they would be welcomed by thousands of DTP supporters. This was the same scene when 34 PKK members crossed the border from Iraq last week and received a raucous hero's welcome from DTP members, which embarrassed the government. .Before leaving for a trip to Pakistan, Erdogan told reporters "Let's have a break in returns, and we will assess the process later." (Zaman, Hurriyet - 26/10/09)