Former Republican People's Party (CHP) Deputy Chairman Onur Öymen harshly criticized CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu for his recent remarks regarding the PKK terrorist organization. Kılıçdaroğlu said on a television program that even if the outlawed PKK withdraws to the Qandil Mountains, the terrorist organization would not lay down arms, explaining the PKK's reasons for bearing arms. Öymen stressed that saying that the PKK will not lay down arms is a way of relenting.

Kılıçdaroğlu had said: "The PKK is combating the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham [ISIS] and the U.S. is aiding the organization." He further underlined that it is impossible for the PKK to lay down arms. Öymen criticized Kılıçdaroğlu, and said: "The PKK has to lay down arms, [and] Turkey will make them lay down arms." Öymen said that the PKK is being supported by the West and urged them to pay attention to foreign dynamics.

Öymen also objected to Kılıçdaroğlu for his statement, urging Parliament to resolve the issue with the PKK. Öymen said: "What is Parliament going to do? Can Parliament convince the U.S. not to support and protect the PKK? This is a job for the government and a solution can only be found by the government."

The Öymen previously criticized the CHP for its failures in the elections. Öymen underlined that the issue with the CHP is a deviation from the party's fundamental tenets. "The CHP is a party that was established to protect the basic values of the Republic. I do not approve of the party's being ill-guided from its basic ideology," Öymen had said prior to the June 7 elections. Öymen was also among the 42 former deputies who opposed Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu's joint CHP-Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) candidacy in the presidential election.