ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A Turkish parliamentary committee set up to oversee a new peace initiative with Kurdish militants on Friday voted in favor of a controversial step to meet with the militant group’s
leader, Abdullah Ocalan, in prison, state media reported.
Ocalan, who has been imprisoned at Imrali Island near Istanbul since 1999, remains an influential figure among Kurds and is seen as key in advancing the peace process aimed at ending a decades-long insurgency. However, as the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, he is also reviled by much of the Turkish public as a “baby killer” and is held responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people since the 1980s.
In an unprecedented decision, a cross-party committee voted in favor of sending a delegation — that is likely to include members of a nationalist party — to Imrali, state broadcaster TRT reported. It was not immediately clear when the visit would take place.
Previously, only a delegation from Turkey’s pro-Kurdish political party had met with Ocalan to discuss the peace efforts.
The main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, which is facing a crackdown and whose presidential candidate, the former mayor of Istanbul, is currently jailed, did not participate in the vote and has refused to take part in the visit.
The parliamentary committee was formed in August to oversee and guide the peace effort after the PKK heeded a call by Ocalan and announced in May that it would disarm and disband, ending four decades of hostilities.
The group later held a symbolic disarmament ceremony in northern Iraq, where fighters began laying down their weapons, and announced last month that it was withdrawing its remaining forces from Turkey to Iraq.
The PKK, designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, has waged an armed insurgency against Turkey since 1984. It initially sought an independent Kurdish state, later shifting to demands for autonomy and expanded rights within Turkey. The conflict has spilled into neighboring Iraq and Syria.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s nationalist ally, Devlet Bahceli, who initiated the latest peace effort, has endorsed the idea of visiting Ocalan, even declaring he would go himself if others refuse. Bahceli's far-right nationalist party had previously opposed any concessions to the PKK.
Previous peace efforts between Turkey and the PKK collapsed — most recently in 2015 — leaving deep skepticism about whether this new process can succeed.
