The Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) on Wednesday announced it would pay an upcoming visit to the island prison Imrali in the Marmara Sea, where PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan is jailed.
“As the DEM Party, we prepare to go to Imralı Island in the shortest time possible. With a delegation including our co-chairs and MYK members, we prepare to explain to him (Öcalan), understand this period and organize more strongly through meeting with him directly and discuss issues,” party spokesperson Ayşegül Doğan said during the Central Executive Committee (MYK) meeting.
“It is highly likely that Öcalan will in the upcoming days meet with different political party leaders,” she added. “We also know that Öcalan would like to meet Masoud Barzani, Nechirvan Barzani, Mazloum Abdi, Qubad Talabani and Bafel Talabani, and we believe it will be useful.”
Doğan also said that one of her party’s most important agendas is the establishment of a parliamentary working commission for the terror-free Türkiye initiative.
Reminding that Parliament will enter summer recess soon, Doğan said: “Facing such a historical responsibility, holidays cannot be an excuse. Therefore, as the DEM Party, we invite Mr. Kurtulmuş to take an initiative before the recess.”
She also indicated that preparations on how the commission will function are ongoing, while other political parties are similarly expecting the process to proceed under the auspices of the parliament.
Türkiye has been battling the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union – for four decades. Following intensified security operations in recent years, Ankara sees the current moment as a turning point.
The initiative for a terror-free Türkiye was launched by government ally Devlet Bahçeli, head of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), who called on the PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan to appeal to the PKK to lay down arms last year.
Soon, his call evolved into a new initiative that saw DEM Party lawmakers visiting Öcalan in the island prison where he is incarcerated in the Marmara Sea. As a result and in a landmark development, the PKK last month announced its dissolution and the end of its four-decade terror campaign that cost tens of thousands of lives in Türkiye, as well as in Iraq and Syria.
