ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The renewed peace talks between Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) are a chance to correct past mistakes a redefine a “thousand years of brotherhood,” Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party said on Monday.
“At this historic juncture, where a ‘thousand years of brotherhood is being redefined,’ it is our shared responsibility to respect the pain and learn from the past,” Aysegul Dogan, spokesperson for the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), said on X.
The DEM Party is leading renewed efforts to end the decades-long conflict between the PKK and the Turkish state, which has claimed over 40,000 lives, mainly PKK fighters. The party serves as a mediator and main communication channel between Ankara and jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Dogan lamented that during the bloody conflict, “many Kurdish and Turkish youths have lost their lives, whether Turkish or Kurdish, soldier or PKK member.”
“The salt of all our tears is the same!” she stated.
The PKK held a disarmament ceremony in the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani province in mid-July, where 30 members and commanders burned their weapons. It followed Ocalan’s historic February call to abandon the armed struggle and pursue a political solution to secure Kurdish rights in Turkey.
A Turkish parliamentary commission tasked with establishing a legal framework for the peace process has been established and on Friday had its second meeting. The sessions are being held under the confidentiality rule, keeping the record sealed for ten years.
The commission includes representatives from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the DEM Party, and several smaller parties.
The PKK, established in 1978, initially sought Kurdish independence before shifting its focus to securing political and cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey. It is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
