Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on April 10 held his first meeting with pro-Kurdish politicians who are working to bring an end to the 40-year conflict between Turkey and Kurdish militants.
Pervin Buldan and Sirri Sureyya Onder, parliamentary deputies for the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM Party, met with Erdogan at his presidential palace in Ankara.
The DEM Party was founded in 2023 and is the latest iteration of the pro-Kurdish political movement in Turkey.
“It was a very positive meeting; it went well. We are much more hopeful,” Onder said.
Before the tête-à-tête, Onder said they would present the current state of peace talks to the president, adding that they believed that the negotiations were set to speed up.
Present during the 90-minute meeting were Efkan Ala, deputy chairperson of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), and Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin.
Buldan and Onder have been among those who visited the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, in a bid to bring about an end to violence that has killed tens of thousands.
The PKK, which has waged a violent insurgency against the Turkish state since the mid-1980s, is considered a terrorist organization by Ankara and most of the West.
Ocalan, who has been in government custody since he was captured by Turkish intelligence operatives in Kenya in 1999, called for the group to disband and disarm in late February.
Days later, the PKK announced a cease-fire.
The group then appealed for Ocalan to be released from his island prison to “personally direct and execute” a party congress that would lead to the group’s dissolution.
Erdogan at the time described developments as an “opportunity to take a historic step toward tearing down the wall of terror” between Turks and Kurds.
Since then, little obvious progress has been made, with the government not publicly offering anything to the PKK.
Instead, Ankara’s military has kept up its campaign against PKK insurgents in northern Iraq while Turkish-backed groups fight PKK-linked militants in northeast Syria.
The PKK’s cease-fire came against the backdrop of fundamental changes in the region, including the toppling of Syrian President Bashar Assad, the diminishing of the power of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Israel–Hamas war.
It also comes on the heels of increased pressure on AKP’s rival parties, with several mayors being removed from office in recent months and some even being arrested.
All 10 mayors deny the charges leveled against them, claiming that their convictions and subsequent removals from office were politically motivated.
The most high-profile of these cases is the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu of the CHP, who has long been seen as a potential challenger to Erdogan.
His detention last month sparked widespread protests across Turkey, with police making scores of arrests.
Before his arrest, Imamoglu, 54, had faced two separate investigations, the first of which included accusations of bribery, tender rigging, and other criminal activities allegedly committed during his time in office.
As part of a second investigation, he has also been charged with aiding the PKK.
The terrorism-related charges against Imamoglu stem from the CHP’s cooperation with the DEM in the run-up to the 2024 municipal election, in which Imamoglu secured a second term as Istanbul mayor.
Some believe that the reconciliation effort is a ploy by Erdogan’s government to garner Kurdish support for a new constitution that would allow him to remain in power beyond 2028, when his term ends.
The cease-fire is the first indication of a breakthrough in ending the violence since 2015, when the last talks between the PKK and Ankara collapsed.
