 were to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday for talks described by jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) founder Abdullah Öcalan as having a "historic nature.”){kind=link}
Lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) were to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday for talks described by jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) founder Abdullah Öcalan as having a “historic nature.”
The DEM Party, Turkey’s third biggest party, has played a key role in facilitating an emerging peace deal between the government and Öcalan, whose militant group, the PKK, in May announced the end of its decades-long armed conflict and decided to disband.
On Sunday the delegation travelled to İmralı Island where Öcalan has been serving a life sentence since 1999. They said they had had “a very productive two-and-a-half-hour meeting” with the 76-year-old former militant.
“He said he attached great importance our delegation’s meeting with the president, which was of a historic nature,” the delegation said in a statement.
“Similarly, he said the commission to be established in the Turkish [parliament] will also play a major role in directing the peace and the solution.”
With the process “entering a new phase” it was very important everyone played their role, he told them.
“His hope, confidence and belief in the contribution of this process to the democratization of Turkey as a whole is extremely strong,” they said.
The three-person delegation that went to İmralı comprised lawmakers Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar and lawyer Özgür Faik Erol, the DEM Party said.
The delegation would meet with DEM Party’s leadership on Monday morning, after which Buldan and Sancar would head to the presidential palace for talks with Erdoğan at 1200 GMT, it said.
The meeting came as the PKK was to hold a ceremony in Iraqi Kurdistan to start destroying a first tranche of weapons, which will likely take place on or around July 10-12.
Erdoğan said the move would give momentum to peace efforts with the Kurds.
The process of laying down of arms is expected to unfold over the coming months.
© Agence France-Presse