Bahçeli calls for release of Öcalan, Demirtaş as ‘Kurdish peace law’ heads to parliament

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, a key government ally, called today for the release of imprisoned Kurdish leaders as parliament prepared to receive legislation governing the Kurdish peace process.

He called for the release of Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and Selahattin Demirtaş, a Kurdish political leader who has been imprisoned for 10 years.

“Selahattin Demirtaş should return home, the two Ahmets should return to office, and Öcalan should be granted the right to hope,” Bahçeli told reporters in Ankara. “I regularly speak with Selahattin Demirtaş through his lawyers and ask how he is doing,” he added.

The “Ahmets” he mentioned are Mardin Metropolitan Mayor Ahmet Türk and İstanbul’s Esenyurt district mayor Ahmet Özer. Both are members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party and were removed from office over “terrorism-related” cases against them.

Framework law

Bahçeli’s remarks came as a framework law on the Kurdish peace process was expected to be submitted to parliament today. Although its contents have not been disclosed, the legislation is intended to place the nearly two-year process on a legal footing.

The bill reportedly includes provisions covering the return and reintegration of PKK members and the release of political prisoners.

Turkey’s National Security Council and intelligence agencies would determine whether the PKK had fully laid down its arms, according to media reports. Once disarmament was confirmed, the PKK would legally be classified as an organization that had ceased to exist and would no longer officially be designated a terrorist organization.

The process began in Oct 2024, when Bahçeli proposed allowing Öcalan to benefit from the “right to hope” in exchange for dissolving the PKK.

Öcalan called on the group to disarm in Feb 2025. The PKK held a congress three months after this call and decided to dissolve itself following 40 years of armed insurgency.

A parliamentary commission spent the second half of 2025 preparing the legal framework for the process.

(VK)