ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkey's main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), announced on Friday that it will not participate in a parliamentary delegation that is set to visit jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan as part of efforts to find a legal framework for the ongoing peace process between the Kurdish group and Ankara.
“As CHP, we do not find it appropriate to assign members to the Commission delegation,” said Murat Emir, group deputy chairman of the CHP at the legislative, criticising the Speaker of the Parliament Numan Kurtulmus for deciding to hold the meeting behind closed doors.
The parliament has formed the National Solidarity, Brotherhood and Democracy Commission to discuss the ongoing peace talks between the PKK and the Turkish state and pass a law which could meet some of the PKK’s demands in return for its May decision to dissolve itself and lay down arms.
The commission decided in August that it would meet under confidentiality rules, keeping the record sealed for 10 years.
"I would like to express that it is not right to hold a meeting where the visit to Imrali will be discussed by concealing it from our nation. It is important for everyone here, every political party, to clearly state their position,” Emir said in a post on X before the commission decided it would visit Ocalan.
"Our party CHP, which is awaiting everyone's decision and facing a closure case, has named the Kurdish issue and taken ownership of its solution even in the days when no one could say 'Kurd,'" the lawmaker said in his statement.
After the commission made the decision that it would send a delegation to Imrali, DEM Party member Saruhan Oluc told Rudaw’s Nalin Hassan that the CHP’s decision to not take part in the visit is due to "fear of the reaction of voters.”
Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit, deputy head of the DEM Party's parliamentary bloc, said that “Whether the vote is open, secret, or closed has no bearing on us,” Anka Haber reported.
Updated at 7:08 pm.