ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdish politicians on Friday welcomed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) landmark congress, expressing hope for a “new era” and turning a “new page” with the Turkish government. The PKK is expected to make an announcement soon about a decision to dissolve itself.
“With the PKK's historic congress decisions, we are taking another step closer from fifty years of conflict toward the horizon of peace. This step is a milestone for the reemergence and development of peace and democratic politics that our ancient lands have been longing for,” read a statement from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party).
Jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in February called on his followers to hold a congress and lay down arms and dissolve the party, making a shift from conflict to political struggle. After months of meetings between mediators and Turkish government officials, the PKK said on Friday that it held the much-anticipated congress in the Kurdistan Region’s mountains on Monday and Tuesday.
The DEM Party, which has played a role in bringing the PKK and Ankara together and made multiple visits to Ocalan, welcomed the congress.
“A new page is opening on the path to honorable peace and democratic solution. As the DEM Party, after this historic turning point, we believe in the necessity for all democratic political institutions, especially the Turkish Grand National Assembly [parliament], to take responsibility for the solution of the Kurdish issue and the true democratization of Turkey,” the party said.
“At this historic moment, the executive power fulfilling its historical responsibility to make the opportunity to build Turkey's democratic future successful, will be the guarantee of peace,” it added.
The party, which has met with Turkey’s most influential political parties and the parliament speaker as well as Kurdish leaders in the Kurdistan Region and northeast Syria (Rojava) in its role as mediator, thanked Ocalan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his far-right ally Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and Ozgur Ozel, head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) for their contributions to the peace process.
Sezai Temelli, a DEM Party lawmaker, told Rudaw on Friday that he expects the parliament to form a peace commission.
"What kind of commission should it be? Should it be like the first solution process or should it be in a different form? All of these are open to consultation and dialogue," he said.
"Of course, working conditions on the parliamentary ground are very important, whether it happens through this commission or through a different method. Of course, we will discuss this in our consultations with all parties," he added.
The DEM Party’s peacemaking delegation consists of Pervin Buldan and Ahmet Turk. Sirri Sureyya Onder, another key member of the team, passed away on Saturday after suffering from a heart attack.
"Now the real foundations of peace will be laid. Congratulations to all of us," Buldan told Haberturk news outlet following the PKK’s announcement.
Leyla Zana, a veteran Kurdish politician and a strong supporter of the peace talks, said on X that “The new era, new hopes, and new forms of struggle place new responsibilities on all of us.”
“We must approach democratic, egalitarian, just, and free tomorrows with this awareness and sensitivity. In light of these feelings and thoughts, I wish for the best for our region,” she added.
Turkey and the PKK have been engaged in a decades-long armed conflict. Founded in 1978 in response to oppression of the Kurdish population in Turkey, the PKK initially struggled for an independent Kurdistan but now calls for greater political and cultural rights within Turkey. Ankara and its Western allies consider the group a terrorist organization.
The PKK on Friday renewed its call for “the physical freedom” of Ocalan, who has been jailed in Imrali prison since 1999.
A similar peace process begun between the PKK and Erdogan’s government in 2013 collapsed two and half years later.
