{"id":65106,"date":"2013-02-11T13:08:20","date_gmt":"2013-02-11T11:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=65106"},"modified":"2014-01-08T00:14:08","modified_gmt":"2014-01-07T22:14:08","slug":"obama-eyes-real-progress-in-turkey-peace-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2013\/02\/11\/obama-eyes-real-progress-in-turkey-peace-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama eyes \u2018real progress\u2019 in Turkey peace talks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>US President Barack Obama speaks at the Armed Forces Farewell Tribute in honor of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta at Joint Base Myer-Henderson in Washington February 8, 2013. &#8211; Reuters<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-65107\" alt=\"bara_02102013\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/bara_02102013.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"434\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/bara_02102013.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/bara_02102013-300x210.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>US President Barack Obama said he believes Turkey\u2019s efforts to try to resolve the three-decade conflict with Kurdish rebels will lead to \u201creal progress,\u201d according to remarks published in a Turkish newspaper on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI applaud Prime Minister (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan\u2019s efforts to seek a peaceful resolution to a struggle that has caused so much pain and sorrow,\u201d he told the Milliyet newspaper, referring to negotiations launched last year between Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe that the proactive measures that the Turkish government is undertaking can lead to real progress,\u201d he said, according to a copy of Obama\u2019s comments in English provided by the newspaper.<\/p>\n<p>Turkish secret services resumed peace talks with jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan late last year, aiming to disarm the rebels who use bases in Iraq as a springboard to launch attacks on government security forces in the Kurdish majority southeast.<\/p>\n<p>The PKK, which took up arms in its campaign for autonomy in the southeast in 1984, is branded a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies. More than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have died since the conflict began.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA peaceful resolution will not only improve the lives of millions of citizens living in the violence-torn regions of southeast Turkey it will mean more security and prosperity for people across Turkey for generations to come,\u201d Obama wrote in response to questions from Milliyet.<\/p>\n<p>He said the United States will continue to support Turkey in its \u201cdesire to close this terrible chapter and begin a new chapter of peace and security\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Both countries are members of NATO and the United States has for several years supported Ankara in its fight against the PKK on Iraqi soil.<\/p>\n<p>Local media reports say the rebels could lay down their arms in the first half of this year, but this has been denied by some PKK officials.<\/p>\n<p>The PKK has declared several ceasefires in the past but they collapsed amid clashes between Turkish security forces and rebels.<\/p>\n<p>via Obama eyes \u2018real progress\u2019 in Turkey peace talks &#8211; Khaleej Times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US President Barack Obama speaks at the Armed Forces Farewell Tribute in honor of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta at Joint Base Myer-Henderson in Washington February 8, 2013. &#8211; Reuters &nbsp; US President Barack Obama said he believes Turkey\u2019s efforts to try to resolve the three-decade conflict with Kurdish rebels will lead to \u201creal progress,\u201d according [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":65107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[145,5858],"class_list":["post-65106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usa","tag-barack-obama","tag-ocalan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}