Turkey’s main opposition party has announced it will participate in a newly formed parliamentary commission tasked with advancing efforts to end the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) armed campaign and support a transition toward legal and political reconciliation, the Anka news agency reported.
The 51-member commission, which includes lawmakers from across the political spectrum, was convened following invitations sent last week by Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş, who asked parties to nominate their members by July 31.
Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel confirmed the party’s decision to join after visiting jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu at Marmara Prison in Silivri on Wednesday. Özel said the CHP had received assurances from Kurtulmuş that the commission would operate under a qualified majority voting rule, rather than a simple majority, an essential condition, he said, for fair and inclusive representation.
“We will assign 10 deputies to the commission,” Özel told reporters, adding that decisions made by a simple majority, allowing the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its far-right ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), to dominate with their combined 25 seats, would be unacceptable.
Özel said the CHP’s participation would help ensure a lawful, transparent and accountable process.
“No one should fear a commission that includes the CHP. People should fear a commission where we are absent,” he said. He added that voting procedures would be finalized at the commission’s first meeting.
According to the current distribution, the commission will include 21 lawmakers from the AKP, 10 from the CHP, four each from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) and the MHP, three each from the nationalist İYİ (Good) Party and the leftist Yeni Yol. One seat each will go to smaller parties, including HÜDA PAR, the Welfare Again Party, the Workers Party of Turkey (TİP), the Labor Party (EMEP), the Democratic Left Party (DSP) and the Democrat Party (DP).
DEM Party deputy group chair Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit confirmed her party’s four representatives, including herself. MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli also approved his party’s list last week.
The İYİ Party, however, announced it would not participate. Party leader Müsavat Dervişoğlu argued that the commission would serve to legitimize PKK demands and lacked procedural clarity. He also questioned the commission’s legal basis.
The commission’s formation follows a symbolic peace gesture on July 11, when 30 PKK fighters publicly burned their weapons in a ceremony in Sulaymaniyah, northern Iraq. The event came in response to a February call by jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan urging the group to abandon armed conflict and pursue a democratic path.
The Turkish government has responded with backchannel talks and legal groundwork aimed at broader reintegration measures. The commission’s launch comes as Turkey confronts renewed debate over its decades-long Kurdish conflict, Öcalan’s imprisonment and the future legal status of former fighters.
Despite skepticism from some opposition factions, the commission is expected to begin its work in August. It could mark the most structured form of Kurdish–state dialogue since peace negotiations collapsed in 2015.