ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) announced on Thursday that the ongoing peace talks between Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have reached an “important” stage. The party will kick off a new round of meetings with top Turkish officials and prominent politicians, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and is expected to visit jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan soon.
DEM Party lawmakers, Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar, on Thursday visited Numan Kurtulmus, speaker of the Turkish parliament. Buldan said it was a “courtesy visit” to congratulate him for his recent re-election and “we wanted to consult, discuss and talk about the stages reached regarding the peace process, and we exchanged views on where these stages stand.”
She added that the 30-minute meeting took place in a “positive framework.”
Buldan, who has been one of the key members of a DEM Party delegation mediating talks between Ankara and the PKK and has held meetings with Ocalan, announced that they will meet with Kurtulmus again and visit other key figures such as President Erdogan, his ally and initiator of the nascent process Devlet Bahceli and Ozgur Ozel, leader of the main opposition party.
“After these meetings, we will also conduct a visit to Mr. Ocalan at Imrali,” she noted, referring to the island where Ocalan has been jailed since 1999.
“I want to express that it has reached an important stage,” she stated.
Ankara has labelled the process as “terror-free Turkey.” It considers the PKK, which was established in 1978 with the stated aim of establishing autonomy for Turkey’s Kurds, a terrorist organization.
In a historic call made in late February, Ocalan urged his followers to dissolve the party and transition from armed struggle to a political path. Responding to his appeal, the PKK announced its dissolution and the end of its armed campaign in May.
The PKK insists that the ball is now in Turkey’s court and expects concrete steps from Ankara. However, Turkish officials have stated that they want to see tangible changes on the ground, including the PKK’s disarmament and the dissolution of all its regional offshoots.
Answering a question by Rudaw’s Zinar Shino at the NATO summit in The Hague, Erdogan said he will soon meet with a delegation from the party.
“As their president, we have no problems whatsoever with our Kurdish citizens living in the region. Things are going very well right now. They have strong potential in parliament. Since they don't have such problems, they requested a meeting for this march, this process,” he said.
Erdogan received a DEM Party delegation, consisting of lawmakers Sirri Surreya Onder and Buldan, on April 10, marking the first meeting between Erdogan and a pro-Kurdish party in a decade. Onder passed away in May.
“I believe they now have another meeting request. And we will fulfill this meeting request in the near future. We will hold our discussions with them,” Erdogan noted.
