Turkey Peace Broker Ismail Nacar to Resume Talks with Kurds
Peace Broker Ismail Nacar has offered to renegotiate between Turkey and the Kurds if Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party agrees. Nacar was also heading the talks between Turkey and the Kurdish rebel forces in the 1990s.
This time he is trying to convince the rebels to give up violence and asking the Turkey government to remove its anti-Kurdish policies. The rebels have been attacking Turkey from Northern Iraq and have even carried out suicide bombings in the country. His ardent plea to the rebels has been to give up violence since it erases the legitimacy of their cause.
According to Nacar, the past efforts have failed due to the resistance of the government and the problem would have been solved in 1996 itself if the political parties would have been honest. He wants the Turkey government to give full unconditional amnesty to all the Kurdish guerilla fighters as the first step to decrease the plight of the Kurds.