Deputies visit Kandil to receive response to PKK leader’s letter

DİYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency

A photo, which shows the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan during a visit by the BDP lawmaker Pervin Buldan and BDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş on Aug. 17, has recently released. DHA Phoyo

Two deputies are visiting the outlawed Kurdish Communities Union (KCK) leaders at the Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq to receive a response to the letter of Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) imprisoned for life on İmralı Island.

The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputy group head Pervin Buldan and the Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP) deputy co-chair Sırrı Süreyya Önder went to the Kandil mountains late Dec. 28 to receive a response to Öcalan’s 20-page letter. Buldan and Önder are expected to receive a response to Öcalan’s letter from the leaders of the KCK, the urban wing of the PKK, today. Önder took the journey to Kandil via highway, while Buldan took a flight. The deputies are expected to return Turkey on Dec. 30, while they expected to deliver the KCK’s response to Öcalan via the mediation of the Justice Ministry.

On Dec. 20, the BDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş, BDP Kars deputy Mülkiye Birtane and Van deputy Nazmi Gür visited Kandil over the peace process.

The resolution or peace process, also dubbed the “negotiations,” refers to an ongoing government-led initiative aimed at ending the long-running Kurdish issue by ending the three-decade-old conflict between security forces and the PKK.

Öcalan began talks with Turkish officials last year to halt the conflict that has left more than 40,000 people dead over the past three decades. In March, He ordered his fighters to cease fire.