Jailed İstanbul mayor and main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu has accused President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of failing to take concrete steps in an ongoing peace process aimed at ending the decades-long conflict with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Turkish Minute reported.
İmamoğlu, who has been held in Marmara Prison in Silivri since his arrest in March 2025, said in a written statement shared on his X account that a “terrorism-free and democratic Turkey” was the shared aspiration of the country.
“Words are being spoken, but no steps are being taken,” İmamoğlu said, addressing Erdoğan. “Turkey’s future, peace and security can no longer bear this stagnant attitude.”
The new process was launched following a call from Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, Erdoğan’s main political ally, who in October 2024 urged jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan to address parliament and call on the militant group to lay down its arms.
Öcalan made a landmark call in February 2025, urging the PKK to convene a congress, lay down its arms and formally disband.
Following the call the PKK announced in May 2025 that it would lay down its weapons and dissolve itself.
Öcalan’s call was widely viewed as a potential turning point in efforts to end the conflict, although questions remained about the legal and political framework that would accompany such a process.
İmamoğlu criticized what he described as a political approach tying progress in the peace process to Erdoğan’s electoral future.
Critics say Erdoğan is seeking to use the initiative to expand his political support base and pave the way for another presidential bid, either through early elections or a constitutional amendment that would allow him to run again.
“No progress can be made with an approach that says, ‘If you elect me, I will advance the process,’” he said. “How many more times do you need to be elected for a solution? Turkey’s fate cannot be tied to the fate of the seat you occupy. Our nation’s future cannot be held hostage.”
Ankara says the PKK’s decision must be verified before broader legal and political steps are taken. The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), which has been involved in facilitating talks with Öcalan, says the government is delaying reforms despite the opening created by Öcalan’s call and the PKK’s announcement.
A parliamentary commission led by Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş approved a report in February setting out a roadmap for legal reforms linked to the process.
President Erdoğan recently said that the approval of the report had brought the process to a more sensitive stage and that political parties’ support would help Turkey get through the next phase “without accident or trouble.”
İmamoğlu said peace should be built through the will of parliament and the nation, not through political bargaining.
“To build a peace that draws its strength from the people and proceeds with the will of the Turkish Parliament is the duty of everyone who loves and wants to protect this heavenly homeland,” he said.
İmamoğlu was detained on March 19, 2025, and later arrested as part of investigations including corruption allegations, which he and the CHP reject as politically motivated. His arrest, widely seen as targeting Erdoğan’s strongest potential challenger, triggered Turkey’s largest anti-government protests in years.
