Academic and columnist Murat Belge has announced his resignation from the Wise Persons’ Committee, which had been formed by the Turkish government to assist the country’s bid to find a peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue, The Hurriyet Daily News reports.
Belge, who was a member of the southeastern region committee, said the atmosphere created by the government with the Gezi Park unrest in Turkey was not appropriate to finding peace and he would not attend Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s meeting with the 60-member committee on June 26.
Belge announced his resignation in his column today in daily Taraf, saying the choice of words and language of the prime minister during the unrest in the country since May 31 was a “personal insult” to him as well.
“Like all those Gezi things did not happen, like all those insults were not said [by the prime minister] I found it meaningless and also impossible to speak about peace,” he said.