Convened after PKK's dissolution decision: Roadmap for the new process drawn up at DEM Party MYK meeting

In the new reconciliation process, which the government has named a 'Terror-Free Turkey,' the terrorist organization PKK announced its dissolution in a statement made yesterday morning (May 12).

Following the separatist terrorist organization's announcement to lay down arms, the DEM Party Central Executive Committee (MYK) convened to evaluate the new reconciliation process and determine the roadmap moving forward.

LEGAL GUARANTEES AND A TOUR OF VISITS TO POLITICAL PARTIES

According to a report in Gerçek Gündem, the meeting discussed the necessity of providing legal protection for those who met with the terrorist leader in İmralı and played an active role in the process, drawing lessons from the experiences of the first reconciliation process that began in 2013 and subsequently ended. Furthermore, it was learned that political parties will be visited in the coming days to seek support for establishing a legal basis for the process.

Claiming that the term "Turkish nation" in the Constitution is not inclusive, the DEM Party proposes the creation of a special framework, led by the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) and with the participation of all political parties, to move the process onto a legal and constitutional footing.

DEM sources, who issued a call for the "government to act in accordance with legislation," are demanding compliance with ECHR and Constitutional Court rulings, an end to the arbitrary practices of Prison Monitoring Boards, the release of Gezi prisoner Can Atalay and the recognition of his parliamentary status, and the abolition of the trustee appointment system. However, it is specifically emphasized that these steps are not viewed as a precondition.

JUDICIAL PACKAGE ON THE AGENDA

The DEM Party points out that judicial packages could arrive rapidly during this process and that there may be more than one such package. In the first stage, they are requesting a regulation concerning sick detainees and convicts, an execution regulation, a regulation to end the practices of Administrative Monitoring Boards, and an amendment to the relevant article of the Turkish Penal Code—which has been canceled twice by the Constitutional Court—that stipulates the punishment of those who commit crimes on behalf of an organization without being a member of a terrorist organization. Party sources believe that the first judicial package expected to come to the TBMM will be delayed until after the Eid al-Adha holiday.

EXPECTATION OF AMNESTY

Furthermore, the goal is to increase inter-party contacts and focus on efforts both within and outside the Parliament. Arguing that the government has created an expectation of amnesty in prisons in recent years, DEM sources point out that judicial packages should be prepared quickly to meet the expectations of the inmates.