DEM Party 'more hopeful' after rare talks with Öcalan

ANKARA

The Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) has expressed renewed hope for resolving the Kurdish issue following a rare meeting with Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed PKK leader serving life on a prison island off Istanbul.

The visit was the party's first in almost a decade. The pro-Kurdish DEM Party's predecessor, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), last met Öcalan in April 2015.

DEM Party's delegation, made up of lawmakers Sırrı Süreyya Önder and Pervin Buldan, traveled to the island after the government approved the party's request on Dec. 27.

"We are much more hopeful than in previous processes," Önder told private broadcaster A Haber on Dec. 30. No public information would be released until discussions reach a "certain maturity," he added.

"This decision does not mean hiding anything. On the contrary, it is a requirement of respect for the talks we will be holding," Önder said, promising a more detailed statement in the new year.

A peace process between PKK and the government collapsed in 2015, unleashing violence especially in the country's southeast.

Meanwhile, political parties have voiced divergent opinions on the rare meeting.

"We wish that there would be no terrorist organization left against us and that the need to fight against it would be eliminated. Who wouldn’t want that?" Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz told reporters on a question.

"The Turkish Republic will continue its fight against terrorism in a determined and uninterrupted manner. No one should have any doubts about that."

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel emphasized the need for parliamentary oversight.

"We are in favor of the process being carried out transparently. One of our most important criteria is to consider the sensitivities of the families of martyrs and our veterans," he told local media.

After the delegation returned from the island, a DEM Party statement issued on Dec. 29 said Öcalan is "ready to make a call" to back a new initiative by the Turkish government to end decades of conflict.

Detained 25 years ago by Turkish security forces in Kenya after years on the run, Öcalan was sentenced to death. However, Türkiye abolished capital punishment in 2004 and he is spending his remaining years in an isolation cell on the prison island.

The visit became possible after Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahçeli invited Öcalan to come to parliament to renounce terror and disband PKK.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, his ally, backed the appeal as a "historic window of opportunity."

"I have the competence and determination to make a positive contribution to the new paradigm started by Mr. Bahçeli and Mr. Erdoğan," the statement quoted Öcalan as saying.

The MHP praised its leader Devlet Bahçeli’s influence on the process. “The continuation of his call as a state policy has brought the process to the current stage,” MHP lawmaker Mevlüt Karakaya told private television Kanal 7.

Meanwhile, İYİ Party leader Müsavat Dervişoğlu expressed disapproval of the meeting, questioning its purpose.

"Everyone is talking like a secret clerk. We do not know what is wanted from Abdullah Öcalan,” he said. “It is a shame for me to expect help for the future of Türkiye from the main murderer in İmralı."