(POL) TURKEY'S MAIN OPPOSITION ACCUSES ERDOGAN OF TALKING INDIRECTLY WITH PKK.

ANKARA, Aug 5, 2009 (TUR) -- Turkey's main opposition leader Deniz Baykal accused Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan of indirectly talking with terrorist organization PKK through Wednesday's meeting with Democratic Society Party.

Baykal told a live TV Programme on NTV channel, "the interlocutor of Erdogan's meeting with DTP officials was no doubt PKK," in an attempt to refute Erdogan who said Tuesday that he did not want to equate DTP with terrorist organization PKK.

"(DTP) It is the embodiment of PKK in other formats. They can't get anywhere by hiding this. Sincerity and honesty should be paramount in such attempts," said Baykal.

Baykal underlined that Erdogan's meeting with DTP leader with the title of Justice and Development Party (AK) leader and not as the Premier, was an attempt by Erdogan to present the meeting differently but it did not change anything.

Baykal said Erdogan who had declared he would not make contact with DTP unless they condemned terrorism and put it forth as a political principle, was not being true to his word.

"He can not stand by that principle now. Conditions have forced him to get together with DTP. This is a move towards this end but is lacks plausibility," said Baykal.

Referring to a recent interview with one of PKK's leaders (Murat Karaylan) conducted by Milliyet columnist Hasan Cemal on mount Qandil where most of PKK camps are situated in Northern Iraq, Baykal said, "He said (Murat Karaylan) 'You either talk with Imrali (where PKK's founding leader Abdullah Ocalan is imprisoned), us, or DTP'. Now is there any difference between these. PKK says all three are the same for them. This meeting counts as a meeting with Imrali," said Baykal.

Baykal accused the government of beating around the bush and not being clear about its position and revealing the content of its newly announced move to adress the Kurdish issue. Baykal said they also wanted to contribute the solution Kurdish issue.

"However we don't want to be a part of a road map drafted behind close doors, we have no clue about," added Baykal who summarized CHP's approach to the issue as "avoiding ethnic seperation".

Erdogan's meeting Wednesday with DTP Leader Ahmet Turk at the Parliament as part of his government's newly announced move to adress the Kurdish issue, ended a long term of no official contact with his party which was justified by Erdogan on the grounds that DTP refused to regard PKK as a terrorist organization or distance itself from it.

Democratic Society Party, which won majority of the municipalities in the local elections of March in the eastern and southeastern cities of Turkey where Turkey's citizens of Kurdish origin are mostly concentrated, refuses to regard PKK as a terrorist organization, despite repeated calls from Erdogan, who declared otherwise he would not take them seriously or even meet them.

On July 29, Turkish Interior Minister Besir Atalay made public the "Kurdish move" of the government with a press conference, expressing the government's belief that the so-called "Kurdish issue" would be solved with an egalitarian approach through democratization.

On August 2, Atalay met a group of journalists at a workshop titled "Solution of the Kurdish Issue: Towards a Turkey Model" at the Police Academy in capital Ankara.

A statement released after the meeting said the participants had a "fruitful brainstorming", and discussed ways to manage the different dynamics of the process, as well as short, medium and long-term measures needed to be taken within the framework of the democratization process.

(THROUGH ASIA PULSE)