The National Solidarity, Brotherhood, and Democracy Committee of Parliament held its seventh meeting on Thursday in Ankara. The committee, which seeks to chart a road map for the terror-free Türkiye initiative, hosted the predecessors of its chair, Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş.
Addressing the session, Kurtulmuş said they were grateful to former parliamentary speakers who, each, “has immense experience in legislation and politics.” “I thank all the parliamentary speakers who followed Türkiye’s democratic experience and basic issues of the country and exerted efforts to offer solutions,” he said.
Hikmet Çetin, a former foreign minister who served as parliament speaker between 1997 and 1999, was the first to speak at the session. Çetin told the committee that “many people came down and will come down from the mountain” during the process and authorities should pardon those not involved in any act of terrorism. He was referring to a Turkish phrase, “dağa çıkmak” or “going up the mountain,” used for PKK members taking up arms.
“It is tough to pardon the people who participated in armed fighting, who used arms for years and killed many others,” Çetin, a stalwart of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), said. “You can’t have them walking freely among others. I think it should be considered that some among the PKK members should be sent abroad. Fifteen or 20 people can be relocated abroad, it can be Sweden, Norway, Denmark or South Africa,” Çetin said, echoing earlier media reports that authorities were mulling relocation of senior cadres of PKK hiding out in Iraq to Europe or Africa. “But they should also be entitled to think that they would be pardoned one day, once society embraces this. For now, it is tough to pardon them,” the 88-year-old self-styled social democrat told the committee.
Çetin pointed out that the unity between Turks and Kurds was unique, implying that this may facilitate the initiative. The PKK claims to be fighting for the rights of Kurds and for the goal of establishing a so-called “Kurdistan” for the community. “Turks and Kurds are not like Blacks and white people in the United States. Moreover, they share the same religion. I never came across people opposing marriages between Kurds and Turks,” Çetin told the committee.
On PKK’s “Kurdistan” agenda, Çetin said the group can very well achieve it, but it would never involve “Türkiye.” “It is impossible anyway. You cannot establish a state with Kurds scattered all around Türkiye. I wonder how they can do this. We have some 4 million Kurds in Istanbul alone, you can’t relocate these people,” he said.
Bülent Arınç, another former parliamentary speaker, told the committee that Kurtulmuş and members of the committee were involved in “a task that will be etched into history.” “Nobody should touch a nerve. We need calm. We have to move forward reasonably,” Arınç said. He added that Türkiye should draw inspiration from past moves to end PKK terrorism, but “on a new path.” “This is not something involving conventional weapons. We need new methods,” Arınç, who was deputy prime minister when Türkiye launched the “reconciliation process” to resolve the issue.
Arınç said “the right to hope,” which was initially proposed for PKK’s jailed ringleader Abdullah Öcalan by government ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli (architect of the initiative), should be implemented. Arınç also noted that even those sentenced to life imprisonment should be able to consider the possibility of release one day. "I see a general amnesty as an urgent necessity," he said, regarding pardoning people linked to the PKK. While emphasizing the importance of staying within legal boundaries, Arınç suggested, "Our commission should take bold steps in light of Türkiye’s realities so that what Bahçeli courageously started can be concluded with equal bravery. I trust and hope in you."
