The Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) said its Imrali delegation and co-chairs will hold a news conference on Feb. 27 to mark the anniversary of a call for a “peaceful and democratic society,” with a new message from jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan expected to be read.
The event, scheduled for 11 a.m. in Ankara, will include members of the DEM Party’s Imrali delegation along with co-Chairs Tülay Hatimoğulları and Tuncer Bakırhan, the party said in a statement.
It was stated that the gathering will assess developments over the past year under what they describe as the “Peace and Democratic Society Process.”
They added that topics outlined by Öcalan during his most recent meeting, referred to as “steps required in the second phase,” are also expected to be addressed.
Öcalan, who has been imprisoned on Imralı Island since 1999, remains a central figure for Kurdish political actors despite Ankara’s designation of the PKK as a terrorist group.
In 2024, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli launched the terror-free Türkiye initiative, and in another parliamentary group meeting of the MHP, he called upon the PKK’s jailed ringleader, Abdullah Öcalan, to order the group to lay down arms after more than four decades of violence. Öcalan responded with a call to the PKK in February 2025 to dissolve itself. The PKK has largely complied with the call and held a symbolic ceremony in northern Iraq last summer where its members burned weapons.
Türkiye has made progress in the disarmament of the PKK terrorist group after a parliamentary committee agreed upon the guidelines for Parliament in the terror-free Türkiye initiative.
The report finalized by the parliamentary Commission on National Solidarity, Brotherhood and Democracy last week, after months of deliberations since Aug. 5, 2025, outlines a road map for the continuation of the process. It stresses that legal arrangements can move forward only after the disarmament of the terrorist organization is verified and confirmed.
Addressing the parliamentary group meeting of the MHP, Bahçeli said the terror-free Türkiye goal confirmed the might of the Turkish state and nation and charted the road for a new century of Türkiye with “unwavering unity.”
He hailed the fact that Parliament took the highest level of initiative and all political parties except a few acted responsibly on the matter. He said that the committee’s report made up the most important leg of sincere efforts to achieve the goal of a terror-free Türkiye and slammed those criticizing the report.
