ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A delegation from Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party arrived in the Kurdistan Region on Saturday for meetings with top officials and ruling parties amid a renewed push for peace between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The visiting delegation from the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) includes two lawmakers who are mediating the nascent peace talks. Pervin Buldan and Sirri Sureyya Onder have met with the jailed leader of the PKK twice since December. The delegation also includes representatives from other pro-Kurdish parties with strong ties with the DEM Party.
They were welcomed to Erbil on Saturday by Governor Omed Khoshnaw.
The group is expected to meet Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani on Sunday and Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani on Monday, Rudaw has learned.
They will also hold meetings with Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) officials in Sulaimani, Buldan told Rudaw's Hevidar Ahmed.
Turkish state-affiliated media outlets have speculated that Ocalan may deliver a video message on Saturday, the 26th anniversary of his arrest, and could ask his group to lay down arms. However, no statement has come out from his island prison Imrali yet.
The PKK has said that it will not heed any calls from Ocalan to lay down arms unless he physically meets with their leadership and is released from jail.
Details of the negotiations remain unclear, but DEM Party officials have said the goal is peace.
Updated at 10:06 pm
