DEM Party hopes Ramadan brings peace to Turkey

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) said on Saturday that it hopes the holy Islamic month of Ramadan brings peace to Turkey as Kurdish rebels and the state enter a new process to end decades of devastating conflict.

“May Ramadan, the month of sharing, contemplation, and struggle with one's self, bring blessings and abundance, and be a means for goodness. May it bring honorable peace that will end wars, especially in our country and the Middle East, and throughout the world. May prayers in this month be for peace, equality, and justice,” the DEM Party said on X. 

Ramadan began on Saturday in most Sunni-majority countries, including Turkey.

DEM Party, the strongest pro-Kurdish party in Turkey, is the main mediator of new peace talks between Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). On Thursday, it released a letter from jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who called on the PKK to hold a congress to decide about its disarmament and dissolution. 

The PKK on Saturday declared a unilateral ceasefire with Turkey and said it agrees with the contents of Ocalan’s letter, but set a physical meeting with their leader as a precondition for any successful peace process.

Ocalan, who founded the PKK in 1978 and launched a war against the Turkish state six years later, explained in his much-anticipated letter that the establishment of the party was a reaction to the “closure of democratic political channels” at the time.

An estimated 40,000 people, including civilians, have been killed in four decades of conflict that has spilled over international borders.