ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdish MPs in Turkey say that Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), is awaiting formation of the new Turkish cabinet before voicing his latest position about the peace process.
Last week it was reported that Ocalan was expected to send a video message from his prison on Imrali island about the talks between Ankara and the PKK.
But Pervin Buldan, a Kurdish MP from the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) said that Ocalan didn’t have plans to send a video message.
The Cuhmurriyet newspaper also wrote that Ocalan may be waiting to see the structure of the new Turkish government, under new Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, before making his opinion about the peace process known.
Kurdish MPs believe that Ocalan may change the conditional peace process announced last year into a permanent peace agreement.
Recently, Turkish intelligence officials met with Ocalan in his prison cell and assured him that the peace process would continue.
Also on Thursday, the new Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in his inauguration speech that joining the European Union and peace with the country’s large Kurdish population would be the priorities of his presidency.
Meanwhile, leaders of the pro-Kurdish HDP and Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) are expected to visit Ocalan on September 1, for another round of talks about the peace negotiations, which were officially endorsed by the Turkish parliament in June.
Upon returning from a meeting with PKK leaders at their Qandil mountain base last week, HDP-BDP delegates said the group stands by Ocalan’s decision for peace.
“Ocalan is our leader and we will support any decision he makes,” they reported the leader as saying.
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