Senior figures from Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) over the weekend called for concrete legal steps to advance a renewed peace process and urged the government to grant jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan official status.
Speaking at a large Nevruz rally in İstanbul’s Yenikapı Square, DEM Party Co-chair Tülay Hatimoğulları said Ankara must move beyond political rhetoric and take tangible steps toward a lasting resolution.
“Ankara must listen to the voice of peace and take legal steps,” Hatimoğulları said, adding that “words and wishes must now give way to concrete action.”
She linked prospects for a durable peace to Öcalan’s conditions in prison, arguing that he should be allowed to operate under freer circumstances.
“For a permanent peace, Abdullah Öcalan must be brought to a position where he can live and work freely,” she said, noting that “freedom for Abdullah Öcalan” had become a common slogan during this year’s Nevruz celebrations.
Öcalan, who founded the PKK in 1978, has been held in İmralı Prison since 1999. The PKK has waged an armed insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 that has claimed more than 40,000 lives. The group is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
Hatimoğulları also called on opposition parties to take a more active role, describing their contribution to a democratic resolution of the Kurdish issue as indispensable.
She said shaping such a process was not only about gaining power but about determining the country’s future.
Similar demands were voiced at a separate Nevruz rally in the eastern province of Van, where DEM Party Co-chair Tuncer Bakırhan said Kurdish citizens were seeking a clearly defined legal status for Öcalan.
“Kurds want the status of Mr. Öcalan to be clarified. They want not a de facto but an official status,” Bakırhan said.
Bakırhan listed broader expectations including constitutional recognition of Kurdish identity, equal citizenship, education in the mother tongue and stronger local democracy.
He also called for an end to the trustee system, under which elected mayors in predominantly Kurdish municipalities have been replaced by government-appointed administrators.
Both leaders voiced their demands as part of a broader push for democratic reform and urged the government to respond with concrete measures.
The statements come amid renewed discussion of a peace initiative following the PKK’s decision in 2025 to lay down arms and disband, a move that followed a call by Öcalan earlier that year.
Hatimoğulları recently said the process had entered a new phase requiring legal guarantees rather than political declarations.
She called for steps such as a “peace law,” the removal of trustees and broader democratization reforms, arguing that while Kurdish actors have taken steps to end armed conflict, the government has yet to respond at the same pace.
A parliamentary commission has drafted a report outlining possible legal changes, including revisions to counterterrorism laws and reintegration measures. However, it has not addressed key issues such as the release of political prisoners or Öcalan’s legal status, leaving critical questions unresolved.
