Pro-Kurdish party requests meeting with jailed PKK leader amid peace talks

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - In an unprecedented move, Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) on Tuesday submitted a request to the country’s justice ministry to meet Abdullah Ocalan, jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), following a powerful ultranationalist politician's recent remarks calling for the two to be allowed to meet amid reports of talks to usher in a new peace process. 

Earlier on Tuesday, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli called for allowing the DEM Party to meet with Ocalan on Imrali island.

“We still stand behind everything we said in our group meeting on October 22. We expect face-to-face contact between Imrali and the DEM [Party] Group to be made without delay, and we resolutely repeat our call,” Bahceli said during his party’s parliamentary bloc meeting in Ankara, referring to the island where Ocalan has been imprisoned for decades. 

Following Bahceli’s comments, Tuncer Bakirhan, DEM Party co-chair, said during the party’s parliamentary bloc meeting that they would officially submit a request to meet with the PKK leader.

Sezai Temelli, deputy head of DEM Party’s parliamentary bloc, shared a document on X signed by both Bakirhan and his co-chair Tulay Hatimogullari, requesting a face-to-face meeting with Ocalan. This is the first time the DEM Party has asked for a meeting with the PKK leader.

Bahceli’s comments on Tuesday come less than a week after a Turkish court extended a ban on meetings between Ocalan and his lawyers for six months. Ocalan last met with his family in October. Before the meeting, the PKK leader was under strict isolation for over three years. Ocalan’s elder brother, Mehmet, last had a short phone call with him in March 2021. Numerous requests by lawyers and family to meet the PKK leader had been rejected.

During his speech, Bakirhan cast doubt on the Turkish government’s willingness to facilitate a meeting with Ocalan.

“They show us an empty pool and tell us to swim in it. We say you cannot swim in an empty pool. There is isolation, and then you [the government] impose a six-month visitation ban. We do not know what Ocalan has said. Kindly lift the isolation and let’s see if Ocalan is being listened to or not,” he said.

Last month, in a drastic shift in his stance on the Kurdish issue, Bahceli proposed allowing Ocalan to appear in the legislature and call for the dissolution of the armed group.

Bahceli’s proposal was met with mixed reactions, with strong rejections from the country’s far-right politicians.

The MHP leader said at the time that combating what he labeled as terrorism was “essential” to reaching a political consensus in the country.

Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denied having any disagreement with his ally Bahceli, purportedly approving of the MHP leader’s proposal. However, he had avoided implicitly endorsing the move. 

“The meeting we held with Mr Devlet Bahceli is particularly critical in terms of the harmony, cohesion, and unity of the People's Alliance, as well as the political and social dynamics Turkey is currently experiencing,” Erdogan told journalists, referring to his alliance with the MHP. 

The calls for meetings with Ocalan come at a time when the Turkish government has increased its crackdown on pro-Kurdish mayors across the country.

Earlier this month the Turkish interior ministry removed three DEM Party mayors from their positions for terror-related charges and replaced them with pro-government administrators (trustees).

The decision sparked fury among the supporters of the pro-Kurdish party and the country’s opposition.

The DEM Party is routinely accused of being the political wing of the PKK. Founded in 1978, the PKK initially called for the establishment of an independent Kurdistan but now calls for autonomy. The group is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and Western allies. 

In a speech earlier this month, Bahceli asked the DEM Party to distance itself from the PKK.

For years, the MHP leader has been a stubborn opponent of pro-Kurdish parties in the country, including the DEM Party, for their alleged PKK affiliation.

Bahceli’s proposal in October reignited the possibility of the renewal of a peace process in Turkey. But a day after the comments, the Ankara compound of the Turkish aerospace industries firm (TUSAS), which manufactures drones and other aerial vehicles, was attacked. The PKK later claimed responsibility for the attack.

In 2013, Erdogan’s Justice and Development (AKP) government entered into peace talks with the PKK, paving the way for an unprecedented opening towards Kurds in the country. Kurdish politicians were able to speak freely about their rights, a topic that was previously taboo. The peace talks, which were mediated by the DEM Party’s predecessor the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), collapsed in 2015 and were followed by intense urban fighting in the country’s southwestern Kurdish areas.