ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A pro-Kurdish party in Turkey is due for talks with the leadership of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party at its Qandil Mountain base on Sunday, following negotiations in Ankara and with the PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The delegation from the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) includes the deputy parliamentary leader Pervin Buldan and Idris Baluken, an MP who is heading the team. They are expected to make a statement after the talks.
The Turkish government and Ocalan agreed on a peace process in March 2013, which has remained largely deadlocked since PKK fighters agreed to pull out from Turkey and withdraw to Qandil.
The process appears to be getting another boost, since the victory of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in this month’s presidential elections. As prime minister, Erdogan’s government had been instrumental in reaching the peace deal with Ocalan.
The HDP began marathon meetings with the Turkish government in Ankara on August 13, in which the Turkish deputy prime minister Bashir Atalay took part.
The following day, Hakan Fidan, head of the Turkish Intelligence Agency MIT, visited Ocalan in prison, and two days later the HDP team met with the jailed leader.
Following their meeting with the PKK leader, the HDP delegation quoted Ocalan as saying: “We are on the threshold of a historical event. The 30-year-old war is about to be concluded with a great agreement.”
“The democratic agreement conveys deep social and historic connotations. We are going through a process now, which will have great impact and outcome,” Ocalan was quoted as saying in his statement.
“This process will influence not only Turkey but also it will present a model for the solution of the profound troubles of the entire region,” he promised.
Ataly, meanwhile, stated that the two sides were preparing a roadmap for peace, which is to be presented in September.
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