Parliament's anti-terror panel set to discuss Öcalan visit

ANKARA

A parliamentary commission overseeing Türkiye’s latest peace initiative is set to convene on Nov. 6 to consider sending a delegation to meet with jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, reports said.

Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş invited the National Solidarity, Brotherhood and Democracy Commission to hold its 17th meeting “to discuss the issues on its agenda,” following a call from Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli.

Bahçeli suggested that sending MPs to the İmralı prison island could "strengthen the process" and said the MHP is "ready to participate" in such a delegation.

The planned visit is part of the government’s “terror-free Türkiye” initiative. Under the campaign, PKK has declared a ceasefire, laid down arms, disbanded its forces and announced withdrawal from Türkiye to northern Iraq.

The DEM Party has facilitated indirect contact between Ankara and Öcalan, with party delegations regularly visiting İmralı, most recently on Nov. 3. MPs Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar also met with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara on Oct. 30.

Erdoğan described the meeting as “promising” and “constructive,” signaling renewed momentum in the anti-terrorism initiative.

Kurtulmuş previously said a delegation could visit İmralı if approved by a “qualified majority” of at least 31 votes. The commission currently holds 22 seats for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), five for the DEM Party and four for the MHP, meeting that threshold. The position of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), with 11 members, remains unclear.

The panel is also preparing a report for submission to parliament’s general assembly after hearing from academics, experts and civil society representatives. Intelligence chief İbrahim Kalın is scheduled to brief the commission next week on the latest developments regarding PKK’s disarmament.

Meanwhile, DEM Party officials visited former HDP co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ in separate prisons on Nov. 5.

The visits followed Bahçeli’s comment after a parliamentary meeting on Nov. 4 that Demirtaş’s release “would be beneficial for Türkiye."

His remarks came when reporters asked about the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECHR) rejection of Ankara’s appeal against an earlier ruling that Türkiye had violated Demirtaş’s rights. Following that decision, Demirtaş’s lawyers applied for his release.

Last year, he was handed a 42-year jail term for his alleged role in the deadly 2014 protests that erupted when ISIL overran the Syrian town of Kobani. He has also been charged with other crimes including terrorism-related offences linked to PKK and insulting the president.