A pro-Kurdish party in Turkey launched a move to advance the “Peace and Democratic Society Process,” known as the “Terrorism-Free Turkey Process,” based on the dissolution and disarmament of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, with the start of the new session of Parliament.
The representatives of the “Equality and Democracy for Peoples” Party, members of the “Imrali Delegation”, Parvin Buldan and Medhat Sancar, met with the Turkish Vice President, Cevdet Yilmaz, to discuss the steps that will be taken in the next stage to announce the formation of the committees emanating from the “Council for Monitoring, Follow-up and Coordination of Social Integration”, which is headed by Yilmaz and is responsible for following up on the disarmament process.
Sources from the pro-Kurdish party said that the meeting reviewed what took place during the first meeting of the Council on August 24, which was held two weeks after Parliament approved the “Law on Promoting National Solidarity and Social Integration,” known as the “Framework Law,” which includes the legal steps that will be taken to integrate elements of the “Kurdistan Workers’ Party” into society, and the mechanism of work of the subcommittees emanating from it.
Ocalan's situation
The Council decided to form 4 committees: “Judicial and Legal Coordination,” “Follow-up and Monitoring,” “Social Harmony and Integration,” and “Disarmament and Strategic Coordination.” The head of the Legal Policy Council of the Turkish Presidency, Mehmet Ochum, announced that the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, Abdullah Ocalan, will be a member of the “Disarmament and Strategic Coordination” Committee.
In statements prior to the meeting with Yilmaz, Buldan stressed the necessity of starting the implementation of the “Framework Law” and ending the practice of imposing guardianship on opposition municipalities, and implementing the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights regarding the release of detained politicians, so that the peace process can advance, pointing out that Ocalan will assume the role of “coordinator” in the phases of disarmament, politicization and integration, and must be allowed freedom to work and hold meetings with journalists, representatives of non-governmental organizations and various segments of the people; Because this is an “inevitable necessity.”
Buldan said: “We realize that the issue of disarmament is one of the fundamental topics in the process, and we understand the sensitivity of this issue, but we believe that this situation can be resolved through mutual steps (between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and the Turkish state) through a gradual approach proposed by Ocalan. She expected that there would be tangible developments during the current month of October with the start of the new session of Parliament, stressing the necessity of accelerating the formation of the parliamentary “Monitoring Committee,” which will monitor the work of the Monitoring and Follow-up Council and the executive bodies.
Media outlets close to the ruling Justice and Development Party reported from sources in the party that studies are being conducted within the party and the National Movement Party, its partner in the ruling People’s Alliance, for some regulations that include amendments to the penal and terrorism laws and the implementation of security measures. These will be presented to Parliament as soon as it is fully confirmed that the disarmament of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party has been completed, including a change in the system for implementing safe measures and simplifying the punitive system to facilitate the integration process.
Continuous arrests
Meanwhile, arrest campaigns continued in opposition-affiliated municipalities for the third day in a row, and, at dawn on Saturday, the deputy mayor of Atasehir in Istanbul, Murat Gunes, and 12 municipal officials were arrested as part of an ongoing investigation into accusations of requesting bribes from contracting companies in exchange for granting occupancy and building licenses, and approving changes in zoning for personal gain, during which the mayor, Onursal Adiguzal, was previously arrested.
Six members of the municipal council, who were elected from the Republican People’s Party list in the local elections on March 31, 2024, joined the Justice and Development Party last month.
This operation was followed by two operations carried out on Thursday and Friday in the municipality of Mersin (south) and two of its affiliated municipalities, and the municipality of “Sultan Eyup” in Istanbul, during which mayors and dozens of its officials were arrested on charges of corruption and bribery.
The opposition leader, head of the New Party, Ozgur Ozil, said that these operations aim to cover up the involvement of the leaders of the Justice and Development Party in the scandal of tampering with investment funds, saying that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government were unable to prove that any of the arrested mayors obtained even two cents through fraud or manipulation, while we proved that his deputy in the party and former minister, Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya, and her husband seized more than Two billion Turkish liras of the people's money are in investment funds through fraud.
Ozil said, in a speech during a rally in the city of Artvin in northern Turkey, on Saturday: “They arrested the deputy mayor of Ataşehir and its acting mayor, and they arrested the mayor of Sultan Eyup. They believe that they will win Istanbul in the next elections in this way,” stressing that they will not surrender and will continue the march until this government is changed.
