Jailed Kurdish politicians Selahattin Demirtaş and Selçuk Mızraklı said they are not counting the days until their release, declaring that their exit from prison will be as political as their entry was, as debate over a renewed peace process in Turkey intensifies, the Anka news agency reported.
The remarks came in a joint statement released after a Wednesday visit by a delegation of opposition and leftist parties. The two men said they would continue their struggle for democracy “wherever we are” and described Turkey as being on the verge of “major changes.”
Demirtaş, a former co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), has been imprisoned since November 2016, while Mızraklı, the former mayor of Diyarbakır in southeastern Turkey, has been jailed since October 2019, both on terrorism-related charges that they deny.
The visiting delegation included representatives from several parties, among them the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) and the Workers’ Party of Turkey (TİP).
“We are in good health and high spirits,” the statement said, adding that they would work to strengthen democratic politics under all circumstances.
“Everyone should know that we are not counting the days to get out,” they said. “Our exit from prison will be as political as our entry was.”
The two politicians also pointed to ongoing peace talks between the government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), stressing the need to end the loss of life and calling for legal guarantees to make any progress permanent.
“The real struggle for democracy will develop and grow from now on,” they said, adding that Turkey is entering a period of significant change.
Turkey is currently pursuing its most serious effort at peace with the PKK, designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies, since talks collapsed in 2015, with growing calls for legal and institutional reforms to support the process.
Momentum increased after jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in February 2025 called on the group to lay down its arms and disband, followed by the PKK’s announcement that it would end its armed campaign.
Kurdish political parties and their allies have since urged the government to move beyond rhetoric and adopt concrete reforms, including ending the practice of replacing elected mayors with state-appointed trustees and complying with court rulings.
Calls to implement court rulings
Following the visit, members of the delegation urged the Turkish government to take concrete steps, including implementing rulings from Turkey’s Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).
Speaking on behalf of the group, DEM Party Co-chair Tuncer Bakırhan said demands for justice cut across Turkish society.
“If you ask anyone on the street, the first issue they mention is justice,” he said, adding that students, women and elected officials alike were seeking justice.
Bakırhan cited parliamentary findings concerning the need to comply with top court rulings and questioned why such decisions had not been implemented.
Speaking outside Edirne Prison, where Demirtaş and Mızraklı are held, he noted repeated ECtHR findings of rights violations in high-profile cases, including those of former HDP co-chair Figen Yüksekdağ, lawmaker Can Atalay, businessman and civil society figure Osman Kavala and urban planner Tayfun Kahraman, in addition to Demirtaş.
He said implementing these rulings would be a first step toward building trust in the peace process and called for the release or retrial without detention of political prisoners.
Demirtaş, one of Turkey’s most prominent Kurdish politicians, was sentenced to 42 years in prison in 2024 over his alleged role in the 2014 Kobani protests, charges he denies.
The ECtHR ruled in 2018 and again in a final judgment in 2020 that his detention violated his rights and called for his immediate release, rulings that Turkish courts have yet to implement.
In a separate statement CHP Deputy Chair Gül Çiftci accused the Turkish government of using the judiciary to pressure opposition figures and silence political rivals.
Demirtaş’s continued imprisonment, along with other high-profile cases, remains central to debates over the rule of law and is widely seen by opposition groups as a key test of the government’s sincerity in the ongoing peace process.