Turkish lawmakers on Aug. 10 began debating a bill that would provide the legal framework for a government-backed process aimed at ending PKK, with most major parties supporting the measure.
Titled the “Law on Strengthening National Solidarity and Social Integration,” the 12-article bill lays out legal measures to be implemented after security authorities determine that PKK, its umbrella group KCK and affiliated structures have ended their existence and surrendered weapons.
Once a decision by the National Security Council confirming those findings is published in the Official Gazette, proceedings would begin concerning investigations, prosecutions and the enforcement of finalized sentences against people covered by the legislation.
The bill is expected to pass by Aug. 11.
The parliament’s Justice Commission debated the measure for 18 hours before approving it. It carries the signatures of 367 lawmakers from across the political spectrum, including members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the New Welfare Party (YRP), the New Path bloc and the Democratic Left Party (DSP).
MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli, one of the architects of the process, attended the parliamentary debate and shook hands with DEM Party co-chairs Tuncer Bakırhan and Tülay Hatimoğulları and senior lawmakers.
In a social media post, MHP deputy head Feti Yıldız called the day “historic.”
“The fact that not a single soldier has even been injured and no new fires have fallen on homes during this period cannot be measured against any material value,” he wrote.
Abdulhamit Gül, the deputy leader of AKP in parliament, told state broadcaster TRT that “Türkiye will be freed from terrorist propaganda,” adding that the process would be conducted publicly.
“There will absolutely be no give-and-take behind closed doors,” Gül said, arguing that the process would remain subject to public scrutiny.
New Party leader Özgür Özel announced his emergent main opposition movement’s support for the bill from the parliamentary floor, while strongly criticizing the government’s management of the process.
“The political government has managed this process with great carelessness. It has conducted negotiations behind closed doors,” Özel said. “It has confined this social issue to a bilateral negotiation environment and squandered the opportunity for social consensus with its own hands.”
He said the New Party had the “strongest grounds” to oppose the bill but would not put that right ahead of what he called the public’s right to peace.
“We did not leave the table in the commission because that table does not belong to [President] Erdoğan. That table is the table of the nation’s hopes for peace,” he said.
The New Party backed the bill in the Justice Commission despite its objections.
“We will vote yes to this law with historical consistency and responsibility,” Özel said.
DEM Party’s Bakırhan said the Kurdish issue was “being discussed in parliament for the first time in ordinary legislative language,” describing the debate as a historic moment.
“A century-old Kurdish issue is being moved from the shadow of conflict to the ground of law,” he said. “We are witnessing this historic transition here.”
The İYİ (Good) Party was the only major party to oppose the bill. Its lawmakers entered the chamber carrying Turkish flags.
İYİ Party leader Müsavat Dervişoğlu accused the government of “reducing parliament to a body that merely registers decisions already made elsewhere.”
“The will of the Turkish nation has been forcibly used without its knowledge and consent,” he said, rejecting the premise that PKK was ending its armed campaign.
The New Path bloc also backed the process. Felicity Party (SP) leader Mahmut Arıkan said the group supported it “as long as it strengthened social solidarity, brotherhood and popular sovereignty.”
For sih part, YRP leader Fatih Erbakan said his party would abstain because of its reservations about the bill.
PKK has been designated a terror group by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union.
