ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A delegation from Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) on Monday urged the Kurdistan Region’s leaders, parties and people to support the peace efforts between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The delegation is currently on a three-day visit to Erbil. Speaking to reporters, DEM Party lawmaker Meral Danis Bestas called on “the Kurdish people, leaders, and parties to be involved in the peace process and to express their views and suggestions on it.” She added that the Ankara-PKK peace process “holds achievements for every Kurd living anywhere in the world.” In recent months, the DEM Party renewed its efforts to mediate peace between Turkey and the PKK. The efforts have included meetings with Turkish politicians and with jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been held in Imrali prison in northwest Turkey since 1999. The DEM Party has also met with leaders in the Kurdistan Region to rally support for the peace initiative. Their current visit to Erbil, which marks the third of its kind to the Kurdistan Region in recent months, notably coincided with DEM Party member Pervin Buldan’s meeting with Ocalan at Imrali on Monday. In late February, the DEM Party had relayed a landmark message by Ocalan, in which he called on the PKK to disarm and disband. The call sparked hope for ending the four-decade-old conflict between Ankara and the PKK that has claimed some 40,000 lives. Commenting on Ocalan's message, Bestas said on Monday that the PKK leader “had made an important call that was adhered to in many ways.” She emphasized that “now is the time to take action.” The DEM Party lawmaker also stressed that Ocalan should be given more freedom to facilitate communication with their delegation as well as other parties. Bestas added that the interval between the DEM Party-Ocalan meetings should not be too long. “We do not want this process to stretch because the longer it takes, the more open the [peace] process remains,” she explained. Following Ocalan’s landmark message in late February, the PKK announced a unilateral ceasefire with Turkey and plans to convene a congress to determine the group’s future. However, the PKK maintained that Ocalan must be released from jail to lead the congress. Despite the ceasefire, Turkey has continued to strike alleged PKK positions in the Kurdistan Region, where the group is headquartered. Kamaran Osman, a member of the Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT), told Rudaw on Friday that Turkish artillery has continued shelling suspected PKK posts in the Region’s northern Duhok province. The DEM Party lawmaker, Bestas, on Monday asserted that in order for the Ankara-PKK peace process to advance, “Turkey's [military] operations must be halted and democratic steps must be adopted by all sides.”
