ARBIL: Pro-Kurdish Turkish lawmakers conveyed a message on Sunday to Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani from Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), who is expected to decide on a long-awaited peace process with Turkiye.

A delegation from the main pro-Kurdish DEM party visited Ocalan twice over the past six weeks, and then held talks with Turkiye’s main parliamentary factions.

Although no timing has been set for Ocalan’s statement, Kurdish politicians are confident it will be soon, and no later than Nauroz, the Kurdish New Year, in March.

The Turkish delegation, which included two DEM lawmakers who met Ocalan, visited Barzani near Arbil, the capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, and conveyed a “message” to him from the jailed leader, Barzani’s office said.

The delegation also “offered their views on the political situation and the peace process in Turkiye, and they shared the details and outcomes of their meetings” with Ocalan, Barzani’s office added.

According to the statement, Barzani said he is “fully prepared to assist and support the peace process in Turkiye”. He stressed that “the peace process is the only right way to reach a solution,” urging all parties to “focus their efforts” on achieving it.

Barzani, who heads the region’s ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), is a crucial powerbroker in Kurdish affairs. The meeting with Barzani lasted nearly two hours, during which the Kurdish leader offered “his suggestions and insights” regarding the peace process, the DEM party said in a statement.

During a three-day visit, the delegation will also meet Kurdistan’s regional president, Nechirvan Barzani, the region’s deputy prime minister Qubad Talabani, and his brother Bafel, the chief of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party.

Ocalan’s PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state, holds positions in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, where Turkiye also maintains military bases.

With peace efforts frozen for nearly a decade, Turkiye’s hardline nationalist MHP party offered an unexpected olive branch to Ocalan in October, urging him to renounce violence in exchange for a possible early release from Imrali island, where he has been serving a life sentence in solitary confinement since 1999.

Backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the call has renewed hopes of an end to a conflict that has killed tens of thousands.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2025