Former HDP deputy says peace process 'went downhill after Davutoğlu got involved'

Duvar English

Former member of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) Sırrı Süreyya Önder said the Kurdish-Turkish peace process went downhill after former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu got involved in it.

"As someone who took part in the process, I can say that everything started going downhill after Davutoğlu got involved," Önder said.

No single person can be held responsible with regards to Kurdish-Turkish relations, Önder noted. He also said the matter necessitated policies on behalf of the central government.

According to Önder, one of the most important reasons for the collapse of the peace process was the failure to make peace a societal demand.

"The central government conforms to an age-old behavior, it is monist, patriarchal... We already knew that. Our job was to create a peace corridor through the opening we had," Önder said.

He added the HDP should also bear the blame and should have found ways to get around the obstacles that impede the peace process.

"There are no excuses on the path to peace. This is a matter of will and ability. Our will was sincere, but our strength was insufficient," Önder said.

Önder said he believed the court expected him and former HDP leader Selahattin Demirtaş to be 'docile,' but that their behavior wouldn't have altered the eventual outcome anyhow.

"I think we would have gotten arrested anyways yet perhaps they wouldn't have handed out such lengthy sentences. We'll never know," Önder said.

In what was his first time speaking to the press after being released from prison, the former MP and film director said he'd been out of the public eye because of his own health and that of his mother's.

Önder said he refused to get surgery in prison because his doctors insulted the HDP.

"We like you as a person, and you can trust us about doing our job but what are you doing in that dishonorable party?" his doctors asked Önder, prompting him to change his mind about having surgery.