EU offers full support for Turkey's reconciliation process
by AA
ANKARADec 09, 2014 - 12:00 am GMT+3
by AA
Dec 09, 2014 12:00 am
The EU supports Turkey's reconciliation process, the EU foreign policy chief said Monday.
"I am reporting the full support of the EU, more than the support, the encouragement of the EU, to proceed on the peace process efforts that could be extremely beneficial not only for the people of the country but also for the region," said Frederica Mogherini, high representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
"I was assured by [Selahattin] Demirtaş and [Yalçın] Akdoğan of the good will and intentions of proceeding on these talks," Mogherini said at a press conference held after meetings with top Turkish officials.
Demirtaş is co-chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), and Akdoğan is the deputy prime minister responsible for the reconciliation process.
The Turkish government's reconciliation process was launched last year to secure an end to the decades-long conflict with the PKK, a conflict that has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU and U.S.
Mogherini is in Ankara along with the commissioner for European neighbourhood policy and enlargement negotiations, Johannes Hahn, and the commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management, Christos Stylianides.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with the top EU officials before the press conference and discussed the situation in Syria, Iraq, Libya and also the Middle East peace process.
Mogherini and Stylianides will head to Turkey's southeast province of Gaziantep on Tuesday where more than 33,000 Syrian refugees live in four different refugee camps.
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