ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Abdullah Ocalan, jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), said the next steps in peace talks between the PKK and the Turkish state must proceed with urgency, in a statement released on Friday following a three-hour-long meeting with mediators the day earlier.
Ocalan said it is necessary to enter "a new stage in which steps are taken urgently in all dimensions,” according to the statement.
“Our aim was to do everything in our power to bring an end to a painful process,” he added.
A delegation from Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) visited Ocalan on Thursday, as the Turkish legislature continues its efforts to establish a legal framework for sustainable peace between Ankara and the armed Kurdish group. The delegation was composed of lawmaker and chief peace negotiator Pervin Buldan, fellow lawmaker Mithat Sancar, and Ocalan’s longtime legal representative, Faik Ozgur Erol.
The DEM Party has taken the lead in mediation efforts that began late last year. In May, the PKK officially declared its dissolution and an end to its four-decade-long armed campaign, acting on an appeal from Ocalan to seek a political resolution to a conflict that has claimed nearly 40,000 lives.
As a symbolic gesture of goodwill, a first group of PKK fighters publicly set fire to their weapons in a ceremony held in Sulaimani province in early July.
Later that month, the Turkish parliament formed a special commission tasked with charting a course toward lasting peace. The commission includes representatives from all major political parties, including the DEM Party, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
According to the DEM Party statement, the jailed PKK leader "emphasized that democratic society, peace, and integration are the three key concepts of this process, and that a result can only be achieved on this basis."
It added that Ocalan "also noted that approaches in some political and media circles that seek to simplify or disregard this preference are damaging the process. He once again expressed his strong belief in eternal friendship and peace among peoples."
Founded in 1978, the PKK initially sought to establish an independent Kurdish state but later shifted its focus to pursuing broader political and cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey.
