German FM: End of Turkey’s peace process would be fatal

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier speaks during a press conference on May 31. (Photo: AP)

Germany's top diplomat has warned that the suspension of the settlement process launched to resolve Turkey's Kurdish issue could prove fatal for the region.

A possible return to armed clashes against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as in the 1990s would lead to disastrous consequences due to the situation Turkey's southern neighbors are in, the Doğan news agency quoted German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier as telling a German daily on Saturday.

“It is only through the continuation of the talks [for the settlement process] that the re-emergence of an environment of clashes which was lived through in the '90s could be avoided,” the German foreign minister was quoted as saying to the Rheinische Post.

The recent PKK attacks, which came after a deadly attack in the southeastern town of Suruç on July 20, have put an end to the settlement process the government launched at the end of 2012 to resolve the terrorism problem and the Kurdish issue in Turkey.

Following the PKK attacks, in which several members of the security forces were killed, Turkey launched air strikes against PKK bases in northern Iraq.

Top government officials have said on numerous occasions since the PKK attacks that the process has been shelved.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said at the end of last month “it is impossible to continue the peace process with Kurdish militants.”

Steinmeier, who revealed that Turkey has given Germany positive signals that the talks for peace could be relaunched, also noted that Turkey demands that the PKK stop attacks as a condition for the relaunch of the process, the news agency said.

The settlement process was launched by the government at the end of 2012 in cooperation with the jailed leader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, to settle the country's long-standing terrorism problem and the Kurdish issue.

Nearly 40,000 people have been killed in clashes with the PKK since 1984, when the armed group launched its first attacks. The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by the US, the European Union and Turkey.

The process has practically been suspended since March of this year, that is, several months before the June 7 general election, when President Erdoğan announced that Turkey no longer had a Kurdish problem.

The Suruç attack, in which 32 people lost their lives, has been attributed to radical terrorist group the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Following the Suruç attack, the PKK accused Turkey of failing to prevent the attack.