"The war is very costly," said Tuglai Hatem Ogulari, Adana's representative in the Turkish parliament from the People's Democratic Party (HDP), who addressed the 2021 budget meeting in Turkey.
"There were talks between Abdullah Ocalan and the Turkish government between 2013 and 2015 under the name of the peace negotiation process. The budget of the Turkish Ministry of Defense has now increased by 2.3 billion compared to last year," she said, blaming Turkey foreign and military policies.
However, during the years of the peace talks, this budget decreased significantly, adding that "While the budget of the Turkish Ministry of Defense was 1.4 billion liras in 2014, this figure increased to 9 billion liras in 2015."
"In short, the peace process was effective in protecting the Turkish treasury and preventing more money from being spent on military affairs," she was quoted as saying by the Duvar newspaper.
"We believe that in order to resolve the Kurdish issue through democratic means, the parties must begin a process of dialogue and mutual negotiation. The Turkish military must withdraw from Syria and Iraq and make political efforts to overcome the current situation in both countries. The best policy is that if our neighboring states are in peace we will be in peace too," the HDP parliament deputy added.
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