ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Abdullah Ocalan, jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), said he hopes a commission being formed in the Turkish parliament will make "important" contributions to the PKK-Ankara peace process.
A delegation from Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) visited Ocalan in Imrali prison on Friday for their first meeting since the PKK’s ceremonial disarmament earlier this month. The meeting lasted three and a half hours.
Ocalan "emphasized his expectation that the commission work on the Turkish Grand National Assembly's agenda would make important contributions to peace and democracy through a comprehensive and inclusive approach," DEM Party said on Saturday.
Parties in the Turkish parliament have until Thursday to submit their candidates for the 51-member commission. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is entitled to 21 members, followed by the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) with ten members. The DEM Party and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) each will have four members. The rest will be distributed over smaller parties. The ultranationalist Good Party (IYI) has refused to take part.
The formation of the commission is part of ongoing peace talks, or what Ankara calls terror-free Turkey, between the state and the PKK, which has decided to dissolve itself and lay down arms after decades of devastating war. A first group of PKK fighters burned their weapons in a symbolic ceremony earlier this month.
