The Terror-free Türkiye initiative that involves the disarmament of the PKK terrorist group enters another crucial week after the first batch of terrorists abandoned and burned their arms last Friday in a landmark step.
Parliament will work to set up a committee to oversee the initiative when it reconvenes on Wednesday. In the meantime, two lawmakers from the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), colloquially known as the “Imralı delegation,” will hold talks with leaders of political parties, including the initiative’s architect, Devlet Bahçeli, leader of government ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and Özgür Özel, chair of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
The committee will be key to determining a legal framework for the next steps in the initiative for the complete dissolution of the PKK. Bahçeli has proposed that the committee can be named the “National Unity and Solidarity Committee” in a bid to underline that the initiative would enforce the notion of bonds between Turks and Kurds. Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş will formally request that political parties in Parliament submit the names of members to be elected to the committee on Wednesday. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), MHP, CHP, DEM Party and New Path (a coalition of three smaller parties) will likely contribute members to the committee, according to a report by the Hürriyet newspaper on Monday. The Good Party (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 till August, as Parliament had already postponed its summer recess for 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.
The Hürriyet newspaper 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. Media 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.
