 is expected to meet with Turkey’s justice minister next week to discuss potential legal steps in what party officials describe as a new phase in the Kurdish peace process, following their Thursday meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.){kind=link}
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) is expected to meet with Turkey’s justice minister next week to discuss potential legal steps in what party officials describe as a new phase in the Kurdish peace process, following their Thursday meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
DEM Party lawmaker Pervin Buldan, who took part in the meeting at the presidential palace along with İstanbul MP Sırrı Süreyya Önder, said in a televised interview on Saturday that the talks marked a “new stage” in discussions around ending the decades-long conflict between the Turkish state and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Buldan said she and Önder would have further talks with Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç in the coming days to review possible legislative measures.
Buldan did not give details on what specific laws may be proposed but said the parties had exchanged views on a number of issues, including prison conditions, the legal status of ill prisoners and the question of whether Öcalan’s conditions would change.
Thursday’s meeting marked the first direct contact between Erdoğan and the so-called “İmralı delegation” — lawmakers historically involved in negotiations with Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned PKK leader — since the collapse of peace talks in 2015. Senior officials including ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy chair Efkan Ala and intelligence chief İbrahim Kalın also took part in the meeting, which lasted about 90 minutes.
The talks come weeks after a statement by Öcalan in February 2025 called on the PKK to lay down its arms and disband. The PKK declared a unilateral ceasefire on March 1.
The Turkish government has not officially acknowledged Öcalan’s message or commented on the PKK ceasefire. Military operations targeting PKK positions in northern Iraq and Syria have continued.
Following the meeting with Erdoğan, several Turkish media outlets claimed the DEM Party had presented a 13-point list of demands. The items reportedly included the lifting of Öcalan’s communication restrictions, the release of ill inmates, the abolition of the government’s trustee policy in Kurdish municipalities and amendments to the country’s counterterrorism laws.
The DEM Party denied having submitted any formal list to Erdoğan. In a written statement party spokesperson Ayşegül Doğan said the items being circulated reflected long-standing public demands and had not been presented in the form of an official request during the meeting.
“The DEM Party’s delegation evaluated how the process might move forward,” the statement read. “The items mentioned in the press were not presented as a list of demands but are issues we have long discussed publicly.”
While Buldan described the atmosphere of the April 10 meeting as constructive and “hopeful,” no concrete decisions or timelines were announced. It remains unclear whether the government will introduce legal reforms or whether further high-level meetings will take place.
Analysts note that Erdoğan’s decision to meet directly with DEM Party figures — at the presidential palace rather than AKP headquarters — is symbolically significant but not yet indicative of a broader political shift.
No official statement has been made by the presidency or the justice ministry regarding the talks or any future legislative agenda tied to the peace efforts.