ISTANBUL: Turkiye has given a parliamentary commission until the end of the year to lay the groundwork for a peace process with the Kurdish militant group PKK, the speaker of parliament said Friday.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) announced an end in May to a decades-long insurgency that claimed more than 50,000 lives, saying it was taking up a democratic struggle to defend the rights of the Kurdish minority.
Two months later, its fighters began laying down their weapons at a symbolic ceremony in northern Iraq, after which the Turkish parliament set up the cross-party commission to manage the emerging peace process.
The move came after months of indirect contacts between the Turkish government and the PKK’s jailed founder, Abdullah Ocalan.
The commission, which is tasked with preparing the legal framework for the peace process, held its first session on August 5 under the chairmanship of parliamentary speaker Numan Kurtulmus.
He said Friday it would continue working until year’s end.
“The decision we made upon the establishment of the commission was to conclude its work on December 31,” he told state news agency Anadolu, saying the deadline was extendible.
“If necessary, it can be extended by two-month periods.”
The 48-member commission is tasked with overseeing the political integration of the PKK and its fighters, as well as deciding the fate of its 76-year-old leader, who has been held in solitary confinement on Imrali prison island since 1999.
Among those participating are 25 lawmakers from the ruling bloc of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP and its nationalist ally MHP, 10 from the main opposition CHP and four from the pro-Kurdish DEM.
DEM, Turkiye’s third-biggest party, has played a key role in facilitating an emerging peace deal, sending a specialized delegation to hold regular meetings with Ocalan on Imrali island — the latest of which took place on Thursday.
In a statement on Friday, the so-called Imrali delegation said they had held a three-hour meeting with Ocalan about the ongoing process.
“He said democratic society, peace and integration were the three key concepts of this process and that results could be achieved on this basis,” it said.
