The Turkish Parliament must take immediate steps to establish a commission tasked with addressing the Kurdish issue through democratic means, Sezai Temelli, deputy chair of the parliamentary group for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party, said at a press conference in Ankara on Monday. Temelli argued that without such a move, the prospect of lasting peace — both within Turkey and across the wider Middle East — remains out of reach.
He urged the Turkish Grand National Assembly to act on the peace appeal made by Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed founding figure of the now-disbanded Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), on 27 February. Temelli described the formation of a parliamentary commission as parliament’s “primary task”.
“This is the moment to take initiative,” he said. “A commission that positions itself as the address for resolving this issue must be formed. This is our urgent duty.”
Referring to Öcalan’s ‘Call for Peace and Democratic Society‘, which the PKK swiftly followed with a decision to lay down arms, Temelli argued that resolving the Kurdish question was central to achieving regional stability and that a democratic solution would benefit not only Turkey but also conflict-affected areas in Syria, Iraq, and the wider Middle East.
“If peace with the Kurds can be achieved in Turkey, then the entire region will find relief,” he said. “We’re not just talking about Turkey. This is about the future of all peoples in the Middle East, including Palestinians.”
Temelli also warned that conditions in Turkish prisons are undermining prospects for peace, pointing to reports from Bolu and Karabük prisons where, he claimed, authorities were acting autonomously and mistreating political and ill prisoners. “These prison directors listen neither to the minister, nor the president,” he said.
Turning to the economic crisis, Temelli accused the government of pursuing austerity through indirect methods such as manipulated inflation figures and increased taxation. He filed a symbolic criminal complaint against the head of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), alleging that the agency falsifies data to deny public workers and pensioners fair pay increases.
He called for a minimum 30 percent rise in pensions and public sector wages in July to compensate for cumulative losses, adding that “organised struggle” by workers is the only way to resist the erosion of living standards.
Temelli concluded by revealing that the DEM Party’s co-chairs had applied to meet with İstanbul’s imprisoned mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, on Thursday. İmamoğlu, a senior figure in the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and widely regarded as President Erdoğan’s chief rival in the upcoming 2028 presidential election, was controversially jailed earlier this year. Temelli noted that the application had been submitted to the Ministry of Justice, but no response had yet been received.
