ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Turkish parliament on Friday announced the formation of a 51-member commission as part of peace talks with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Parties have been asked to submit their candidates by Thursday.
Parliament speaker Numan Kurtulmus sent letters to most of the political parties in the legislature, asking them to submit the names of their lawmakers that will join the commission, reported the state-run Anadolu Agency.
The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is entitled to 21 members, followed by the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) with ten members. The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) each will have four members. The rest will be distributed over smaller parties. The ultranationalist Good Party (IYI) has refused to take part.
The formation of the commission is part of ongoing peace talks, or what Ankara calls terror-free Turkey, between the state and the PKK, which has decided to dissolve itself and lay down arms after decades of devastating war. A first group of PKK fighters burned their weapons earlier this month.
Sezai Temelli, a DEM Party lawmaker, told Rudaw on Tuesday that the commission’s main task will be to ensure “legal and political guarantees for the disarmament process.”
Some PKK fighters based in Duhok province told Rudaw earlier this month that they fear reprisals if they return to Turkey, with many opting to remain in the mountains instead.
Cemil Bayik, co-chair of the executive council of PKK umbrella group the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), said in an interview with the PKK-affiliated Yeni Yasam news outlet on Thursday that they do not seek an amnesty but are demanding constitutional changes.
“These laws need to change, not just for the Kurds, but for all democratic forces, for all left-wing forces. Democratic laws need to evolve. Freedom laws need to evolve. The constitution has failed," he said.
The PKK was formed in response to institutionalized discrimination against Turkey’s Kurdish population.
