PM places priority on 'Kurdish' peace process

In the midst of a busy schedule, newly appointed Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu displayed the importance he places on the Kurdish peace process by convening a meeting with his deputies and other top officials on Thursday.

To completely discuss the complex and sensitive transition process for the Kurdish, Davutoglu called on: deputy prime ministers Bülent Arinç, Yalçin Akdogan, Numan Kurtulmus, Ali Babacan, Interior Minister Efkan Ala, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag and the intelligence chief Hakan Fidan, Fahri Kasirga, the Prime Ministry Undersecretary and Mahir Ünal, a deputy chair of the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AK Party.

The meeting covered all-in-all aspects of the steps supposed to be taken to ensure three main aspects of their lives: the return home for ex-PKK militants, who have not been involved in any crime, the safe evacuation of Kurdish families from the Mahmour refugee camp and their integration into social life when they enter Turkey.

The government's peace initiative aims to end the country's three-decade conflict in the Southeast. The Parliament passed a 6-article draft law on July 10. in order to open a new chapter into the country's peace program, launched to end terrorism and strengthen social cohesion.

During the talks, Ali Babacan, who has secured his seat as the chief of the economy in the 62nd government, briefed him on the financial cost of the new road map, redesigned to accelerate the solution process, while the deputy chair Mahir Ünal has touched on the legislative process, related to the solution efforts. Ünal briefed Davutoglu and the group on the impacts of the six-article law over the peace process and further legal steps that should be taken to accelerate the efforts.

Before gathering with his aides, Davutoglu held face-to-face talks with the army chief Gen. Necdet Ozel. In the meeting that lasted two hours and 20 minutes, the latest developments in the settlement process and security measures to be taken to prevent provocations which may damage the government's acts to solve the terror problem.

Davutoglu also met with Turkey's master spy Hakan Fidan to discuss the final point which the peace process has reached. The latest talks with Abdullah Öcalan, the PKK chief jailed in Imrali, has been the top item during the talks which took nearly half an hour. The impacts of unrest in Syria and Iraq on Turkey's solution process has been placed into the meeting's agenda.