After Öcalan meeting, Turkey’s opposition MPs brief speaker, far-right leader

A delegation from Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) met on Thursday with the parliament speaker and a far-right leader amid tentative efforts to resume dialogue between Ankara and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Agence France-Presse reported.

The DEM Party’s three-person delegation first met with Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş and then with Natioanlist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli.

İmralı Heyeti TBMM Başkanı Numan Kurtulmuş ile görüştü

Meclis Başkanvekilimiz Sırrı Süreyya Önder ve Milletvekilimiz Pervin Buldan ile Kürt siyasetçi Ahmet Türk’ten oluşan heyetimiz TBMM Başkanı Numan Kurtulmuş ile İmralı ziyareti hakkında görüştü.https://t.co/oJG3I5el9e

— DEM Parti (@DEMGenelMerkezi) January 2, 2025

The aim was to brief them on a rare weekend meeting with Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed founder of the PKK who is serving life without parole in a high-security prison on İmralı Island near İstanbul.

It was Öcalan’s first political visit in almost a decade and comes with an easing in tensions between Ankara and the PKK, which has waged a decades-long war on Turkish soil and is listed by the United States and European Union as a terror group.

The visit took place two months after Bahçeli extended a surprise olive branch to Öcalan, inviting him to parliament to disband the PKK and saying he should be given the “right to hope” in remarks widely understood to moot a possible early release.

His outreach was backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

During Saturday’s meeting with DEM Party lawmakers Sırrı Süreyya Önder and Pervin Buldan, Öcalan said he had “the competence and determination to make a positive contribution to the new paradigm started by Mr Bahçeli and Mr Erdoğan.”

“I am ready to take the necessary positive steps and make the call,” he said in remarks quoted by the DEM Party.

‘Positive’ talks

Önder and Buldan then “began a round of meetings with the parliamentary parties” and were joined on Thursday by Ahmet Turk, 82, a veteran Kurdish politician with a long history of involvement in efforts to resolve the Kurdish issue.

“The meeting was positive. We are hopeful,” Önder said after meeting the speaker in remarks quoted by Turkey’s private NTV broadcaster.

The delegation would meet with Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) party and the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) on Monday after which they would offer a full briefing, he said.

They also met with Bahçeli for 40 minutes, local media reported, without commenting on the content of the talks.

In a weekend posting on X, DEM party co-chair Tuncer Bakırhan hailed what he described as a “historic opportunity to build a common future.”

“We are on the eve of a potential democratic transformation across Turkey and the region. Now is the time for courage and foresight for an honorable peace,” he said.