Erdogan Ally Calls for Talks with Pro-Kurdish Party and Jailed Militant

A Turkish nationalist leader has urged talks between the pro-Kurdish DEM Party and jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan to end decades of conflict.

A prominent ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called for direct negotiations between Türkiye's pro-Kurdish political party and Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in a bid to resolve the decades-long Kurdish conflict.

Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), urged lawmakers in parliament to initiate face-to-face discussions with Öcalan, who has been imprisoned on Imrali Island near Istanbul for 25 years. Bahçeli’s proposal follows his earlier suggestion that Öcalan declare an end to the insurgency in exchange for the possibility of release.

Whilst Erdoğan described Bahçeli’s initial proposal as a 'historic window of opportunity', he has refrained from publicly discussing any new peace initiative.

Bahçeli has criticised the pro-Kurdish Democratic Party (DEM), Türkiye's third-largest parliamentary group, with 57 lawmakers, as being aligned with the PKK. However, he has now proposed a direct dialogue between the DEM Party and Öcalan. The DEM Party’s predecessor was involved in peace talks with Öcalan a decade ago.

Türkiye, along with its Western allies, designates the PKK as a terrorist organisation. The conflict, which has spanned 40 years, has claimed over 40,000 lives. Although primarily focused on Türkiye's Kurdish southeast in earlier years, the conflict is now centred in northern Iraq, where the PKK is based.

Ankara has not disclosed specific plans regarding a new peace process, but regional instability and shifting political dynamics may be influencing the push to resolve the conflict. The only significant development so far has been Ankara’s permission for Öcalan’s nephew to visit him—the first family visit in four and a half years.

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