DEM Party Calls on Authorities to Take Serious Steps Toward Resolving the Kurdish Question
DEM Party Co-chair urged Turkish authorities to take concrete legal steps to resolve the Kurdish question, while MHP leader Bahçeli declared "the PKK has dissolved, Now it is time for all organizations associated with it to lay down their arms."
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – Tulay Hatimoğulları, the Co-Chair of the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), on Tuesday addressed her party’s weekly parliamentary group meeting in Ankara, calling on Turkish authorities to take “serious and concrete steps” toward resolving the Kurdish question, which she described as a “century-old issue now facing a historic opportunity.”
Hatimoğulları urged the government to move beyond symbolic gestures and initiate genuine legislative and political reforms to advance peace and democracy. “Türkiye stands before a historic opportunity to resolve a hundred-year-old problem and end five decades of war and conflict,” she said. “The government must move to a stage of serious steps — it should begin with legal reforms and practical measures that can build trust and confidence.”
In her speech, Hatimoğulları referred to her recent visit to the Speaker of the Diyarbakir Parliament and described the public use of the Kurdish language during the visit as “a deeply meaningful and necessary step.” She rhetorically asked: “Has this initiative harmed the Turkish language? Has the country been divided? No. On the contrary, such steps strengthen democracy and social harmony. Those who base their politics on racism are the ones who fall apart.”
The DEM Party co-chair emphasized that the authorities must act with responsibility and foresight. “Those who resist progress create obstacles to the peace process itself,” she said. “Every actor has their own responsibility. The state and the government must now advance toward the phase of genuine measures, beginning with legal reforms and trust-building policies.”
Hatimoğulları also proposed the creation of a special parliamentary commission to lay down a legal and institutional framework for peace, stressing that such a step would “enhance confidence and open the path toward success.”
On the same day, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, speaking at his party’s weekly parliamentary group meeting, declared that “the PKK has dissolved and İmralı has fulfilled its commitment.” His remarks came as part of a broader discussion on the government’s “Terror-Free Türkiye” initiative and the ongoing peace framework following the PKK’s announced disarmament earlier this year.
Bahçeli revealed that a “monitoring mechanism” had been established to oversee the implementation of the “Terror-Free Türkiye” process, saying it was designed “to ensure the dismantling and neutralization of all remaining remnants of terror.”
“The PKK has dissolved,” he said firmly. “İmralı has fulfilled its word. Now it is time for all organizations associated with it to lay down their arms.”
Bahçeli underscored the importance of unity between Turks and Kurds, describing it as the foundation of the Republic. “Our Kurdish brothers played an essential and honorable role in the founding of the Republic of Türkiye. They have never been sidelined,” he said. “Those who betray the Kurds, betray the nation.”
He concluded by referencing the recently established “National Solidarity, Brotherhood, and Democracy Commission” in parliament — a 51-member body tasked with managing the legal framework of the post-conflict period. “The purpose of this commission,” Bahçeli said, “is to safeguard the unity of the state and the nation through peace and democracy.”
These political statements come in the wake of Abdullah Ocalan’s early October message from İmralı Prison, in which he urged Türkiye to anchor its next century upon a “Law of Peace and Democracy.” Ocalan’s message, delivered after a meeting with a DEM Party delegation, marked a critical milestone following the PKK’s formal disarmament in July 2025 and his earlier call for an end to the armed struggle.
The imprisoned Kurdish leader emphasized that Türkiye must now transition from a fragile ceasefire to a legally guaranteed peace process, anchored in democratic dialogue and institutional reform.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has since announced the establishment of a parliamentary peace commission, echoing Ocalan’s call for an institutionalized framework while maintaining that the process would remain “state-led and within the principles of national unity.”
Hatimoğulları’s call for “serious steps” reflects the DEM Party’s determination to transform the current ceasefire into a sustainable and legally codified peace process. Meanwhile, Bahçeli’s declaration that “the PKK has dissolved” and his emphasis on “Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood” underscore a shifting political landscape in Ankara — one in which the century-old Kurdish question may, for the first time, be confronted through dialogue rather than war.
