Erdogan congratulates pro-Kurdish politician for assuming top parliamentary position

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday congratulated pro-Kurdish lawmaker Pervin Buldan for assuming the position of the deputy speaker of parliament.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) said in a statement that they had appointed Buldan as the replacement of Sirri Sureyya Onder, who passed away on May 3. 

Hours later, Erdogan spoke on the phone with Buldan to congratulate her, according to the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya Agency. 

The Turkish parliament is set to elect a new speaker on Tuesday. However, deputy speakers are not elected; instead, each political party that meets a specific seat threshold can nominate a deputy speaker. 

Currently, four parties meet this requirement.

DEM Party has fielded its lawmaker Cengiz Candar to race against the ruling party for the post of parliament speaker. The ruling coalition of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) is reportedly fielding the incumbent speaker, AKP’s Numan Kurtulmus, for a second term. 

Buldan and Onder visited the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, several times earlier this year as the main mediators of an ongoing peace process between Ankara and the PKK.

They also relayed a historic letter from Ocalan on February 27, in which the PKK leader called on his followers to end their decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish government and shift to a political path. The PKK held a congress last month and decided to dissolve itself and end the armed struggle. 

Erdogan received Buldan and Onder in April - the first such meeting between the Turkish leader and a pro-Kurdish party in a decade.