ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party kicked off a series of talks with Turkish political parties on Thursday. The talks are part of efforts to initiate a peace process between the state and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) delegation, consisting of veteran Kurdish politician Ahmet Turk and the party’s lawmakers, Pervin Buldan and Sirri Sureyya Onder, first met with Numan Kurtulmus, speaker of the Turkish parliament.
Buldan and Onder were granted rare access to Imrali prison on Saturday to meet jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Then they visited far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli who had previously opposed talks with the PKK, but in a surprise move was the one to launch the current efforts.
Diyadin Firat is a DEM Party lawmaker. He told Rudaw that they want "sincerity" in the talks.
"Politics requires permanent grounds for meetings and dialogue. Without a permanent system, results will not emerge.