Ibrahim Kalın, head of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), is scheduled to hold talks with representatives of political parties on Monday and in the days to come. The talks are part of the terror-free Türkiye initiative, which MIT oversees. The initiative involves the disarmament of the terrorist group PKK.
The terrorist group began laying down arms earlier this month. Thirty members of the group burned their weapons at a ceremony in northern Iraq and more are expected to abandon arms in the coming months. MIT monitors the process while Parliament will form a committee to weigh next steps in the initiative, from the fate of disarmed PKK members to their sentencing.
Kalın will hold talks with members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the Good Party (IP) and the parliamentary bloc New Path formed by three other parties. His first meeting was with MHP where he held talks with party's leader Devlet Bahçeli. The terror-free initiative was informally launched by the government ally, the MHP, last year. Bahçeli has earlier called upon the PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan to “address Parliament and urge the PKK to lay down arms.” He invited him to do it “at a parliamentary group meeting of the DEM (Party).” The DEM Party has intricate links to terrorist groups and served as a messenger between Öcalan, political parties and the government as the initiative proceeded with DEM Party lawmakers’ visits to Öcalan.
The intelligence chief will brief the political parties on the state of the initiative, especially in light of the disarmament process commencing. Prior to the disarmament ceremony, Kalın paid visits to northern Iraq as well as the Turkish-Iraqi border.
The parliamentary committee will be key in determining a legal framework for the next steps in the initiative for the complete dissolution of the PKK. Bahçeli has proposed that the committee be named the “National Unity and Solidarity Committee” in a bid to underscore that the initiative would reinforce the notion of bonds between Turks and Kurds. The AK Party, MHP, CHP, DEM Party and New Path will likely contribute members to the committee. IP, a far-right party that has long opposed the initiative, will reportedly opt out of the committee. The number of committee members will be between 35 and 40, as other parties in Parliament that do not have parliamentary group status due to their limited number of seats will likely join it.
The committee will work until the end of this month and probably until August, as Parliament has already postponed its summer recess to accommodate its establishment. It will focus on legislative work for the legal framework of the initiative, although reports say the committee’s decisions will be “advisory.” Still, they may serve as guidelines for lawmakers for future discussions and probable amendments to laws to accommodate the requirements of the initiative. The committee will also hear ministers and bureaucrats involved in monitoring the initiative.
Media outlets reported that full disarmament of the PKK may take up to five months and the committee is expected to outline a roadmap for reintegration of PKK members into society, possible leniency in sentencing of the group’s members and confidence-building measures for integration of former members of the PKK not involved in acts of terrorism. Reports say the initiative will also extend to PKK convicts and elderly, ill inmates convicted of membership in the terrorist group may benefit from leniency in their prison terms, pointing out existing laws for such convicts. But this will likely require removal of the PKK’s status as a national threat to Türkiye’s existence, something that the National Security Council, chaired by the president, has the final say.
