Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party to visit Demirtas as peace talks continue

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party held another series of meetings with the Turkish political parties on Monday and is set to visit the jailed Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas as part of a recently-launched initiative seeking a fresh peace process between Kurdish rebels and the state. 

A Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) delegation on Monday visited the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Future Party, and the Felicity Party (Saadet) following a recent meeting with the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan. 

The party kicked off a series of talks on Thursday, visiting parliament speaker Numan Kurtulmus and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli on Thursday. 

“We will make a comprehensive statement after visiting Mr. Selahattin,” said Sirri Sureyya Onder, one of the members of the DEM Party delegation, after meeting with Future Party leader Ahmet Davutoglu. 

Demirtas has been jailed since 2016 for PKK-linked charges. 

“Nothing is more important than brotherhood and peace in this country. We will establish this together… No one is a loser when it comes to peace,” Onder said after meeting with Saadet chairman Mahmut Arikan.

Arikan said his party “will try to support them in terms of contributing to the process in the near future."

The delegation, which also includes Pervin Buldan and Ahmet Turk, is expected to meet with Ozgur Ozel, chairman of Turkey’s main opposition, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), on Monday evening. 

Onder and Buldan, DEM Party lawmakers, were granted rare access to Imrali prison to meet Ocalan last week and they returned with a message from him.

Ocalan called on political fronts in Turkey to make “positive contributions,” saying the Turkish parliament could be an important platform for change.

Bahceli, historically a staunch foe of the DEM Party who has accused it of being the political wing of the PKK, in October proposed that Ocalan should address the Turkish parliament and announce the dissolution of the PKK.

MHP and AKP are government allies.

Ocalan has been kept in the island prison since 1999. 

Founded in 1978, the PKK initially called for the establishment of an independent Kurdistan but now calls for autonomy. The group is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey. 

DEM Party’s predecessor, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), played a key role in negotiating peace talks a decade ago. The short-lived ceasefire collapsed in 2015 and was followed by intense urban fighting in the country’s southwestern Kurdish areas.