President to meet DEM Party delegation for PKK talks

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will meet with a delegation from the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) on April 10 as part of ongoing efforts to address the PKK issue.

"We will reaffirm our will to achieve our goal of a terror-free Türkiye," Erdoğan said during a speech in parliament on April 9, announcing the meeting with the DEM Party group.

The meeting comes after a call from jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan for the terror group to disband itself.

It will mark the first encounter between Erdoğan and pro-Kurdish party representatives since June 12, 2012, when he was prime minister. He met with then Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Gültan Kışanak on that occasion.

"As the [ruling] People’s Alliance, we will conclude this process, which we have been conducting with great care and patience, for the good of our country," Erdoğan said.

The DEM Party delegation has held three meetings with Öcalan at the İmralı prison island off Istanbul since December.

Party officials read a televised statement on Feb. 27 to convey Öcalan’s message urging PKK to disarm and dissolve.

The move came after Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli invited him to renounce terrorism in parliament, an appeal later endorsed by Erdoğan as a “historic window of opportunity.”

PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union. Öcalan, meanwhile, has been held in solitary confinement since his capture in 1999.

In recent months, the PKK leader has been allowed visits, including one last October, when his nephew Ömer Öcalan made the first family visit in 43 months.

Additional visits took place during Eid al-Fitr celebrations in April 2025, when he met with a broader group of relatives and associates.

The meeting between Erdoğan and the DEM Party delegation comes after the MHP and DEM Party exchanged Eid visits for the first time on March 31. This year also marked the first such exchange in a decade between Erdoğan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the DEM Party or its predecessor.