Initiator of PKK-Ankara peace process sends greetings to Ocalan

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Devlet Bahceli, leader of Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the initiator of the ongoing peace process between Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), sent greetings to jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan through mediators, two years after a gesture by the nationalist leader helped set the process in motion.

Bahceli spoke with Pervin Buldan, a senior member of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) and one of the key mediators in the peace process, during a reception marking the start of parliament’s new legislative year.

Bahceli asked Buldan, who has visited Ocalan several times as part of a DEM Party delegation, when she planned to travel to the prison island of Imrali again.

Buldan said the delegation last visited Ocalan on September 13 and would likely return after a month had passed. Bahceli then asked her to "pass on my greetings."

The exchange came nearly two years after Bahceli, once a staunch opponent of Kurdish political demands, shook hands with pro-Kurdish lawmakers in parliament in October 2024, a gesture widely seen as the opening move in the current peace initiative.

Bahceli later went further, calling on Ocalan to address parliament and announce the dissolution of the PKK.

Ocalan did not address parliament, but in February 2025 called from prison on the PKK to lay down its arms and dissolve itself. The group subsequently announced in May 2025 that it would disband and end its armed struggle.

Turkey’s parliament in August passed a landmark law providing a legal framework for the reintegration of PKK members, including conditional pardons and legal protections for some members of the group.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later signed the measure into law. Its implementation is conditional on confirmation by Turkey’s National Security Council that the PKK has fully disbanded and disarmed.

The start of parliament’s new legislative year comes as Ankara moves toward implementing the next stages of the peace process.