Leyla Zana, an independent pro-Kurdish deputy from Diyarbakir who met with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said at a press conference she held for the first time at Parliament in 21 years said that the Oslo negotiations should continue so that they can find a viable solution to the decades-old Kurdish issue.

Zana assessed the meeting she held with Erdogan which lasted for more than an hour for the press and shared her views about it.

Zana told reporters that the meeting with the prime minister was very positive and that she hopes the talk would contribute to breaking the deadlock over the Kurdish issue. “We have seen that the security-oriented mentality and policies have not yielded any viable results so far. The only thing that never was tested is keeping negotiations alive. The Oslo talks mark a milestone in the Kurdish question; therefore, I told Erdogan that negotiations should start again,” Zana said, adding that an atmosphere of trust must be established to keep channels of dialogue open.

Touching upon the new bill aimed at offering Kurdish as an elective language course for the upcoming education term, Zana said to reporters that she earlier told Erdogan that it was positive progress, but was far from meeting Kurds’ demands of education in their mother language. Regarding the tone of the meeting, Zana said, “Erdogan showed his sincerity on the need to open channels of dialogue. When I decided to meet with him, I based it on my reasoning, political experience and insight.”