DEM Party delegation meets justice minister

ANKARA

A Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) delegation met with Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç on April 24 in a continuation of a rare dialogue between the party and state officials.

The meeting included DEM Party lawmakers Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit, Sezai Temelli and deputy co-chair Öztürk Türkdoğan.

Since December, DEM Party officials have visited jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan four times at the İmralı prison island off Istanbul.

In a televised statement on Feb. 27, party officials conveyed a message from Öcalan urging PKK to disarm and dissolve.

“We expressed to the minister that Mr. Öcalan’s working conditions are the most important issue. We think there will be some developments in this regard in the coming period,” Koçyiğit told reporters outside the Justice Ministry in Ankara.

"We stated that Öcalan would not be able to contribute to this process under isolation conditions.”

Renewed contact with Öcalan became possible after Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli invited him to renounce terrorism in parliament, an appeal later endorsed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a “historic window of opportunity.”

Although DEM Party MPs Sırrı Süreyya Önder and Pervin Buldan were expected to attend the latest talks with Tunç, both were absent.

Önder remains in critical condition following a cardiac arrest on April 15 that required a 12-hour surgical intervention to repair a torn aorta. Buldan has been closely involved in his care at the hospital.

The meeting follows a landmark April 10 encounter between Önder, Buldan and Erdoğan at the presidential complex — marking the first such contact between the Turkish leader and pro-Kurdish politicians in nearly 12 years.

Türkiye's intelligence chief İbrahim Kalın and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy leader Efkan Ala also attended that meeting.

PKK is listed as a terror group by Türkiye, the U.S. and the EU. Öcalan, meanwhile, has been held in solitary confinement since his capture in 1999.