Ocalan advices Turkish government on peace process

Hawar Abdulrazaq – BasNews (Erbil): 9-12-2013 – Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan has given the Turkish government recommendations on how to improve the peace process between Ankara and the PKK.

While receiving the 13th parliamentary delegation at his prison on İmralı Island, Ocalan said that he expected a “more positive negotiation initiative” from the government, and added that he maintained his hopes on the process. The Kurdish leader’s recommendations were put forward by a delegation composed by the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputy parliamentary group chairs Pervin Buldan and İdris Baluken, and the People’s Democratic Congress (HDP) lawmaker Sırrı Süreyya. 

The recommendations suggest that the “peace process be put into a legal framework, the delegations on both sides be identified and made public and for there to be a neutral foreign observer monitoring the situation and the process.”