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Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş reaffirmed Thursday that Türkiye has never engaged in negotiations with terrorist groups and never will, stressing that no step will be taken to dishonor the memory of the country’s martyrs.
“Rest assured, no bargaining has been made with terrorist groups, and none will ever take place. No step has been taken, nor will be taken, that would distress the souls of our martyrs,” Kurtulmuş said during a ceremony at Parliament’s Şeref (Honor) Hall, where Trabzon was formally presented with the Independence Medal awarded by the Grand National Assembly in 1924 but never previously handed over.
Underscoring the importance of unity and resilience, Kurtulmuş said Türkiye’s geography remains at the center of global struggles and that the country must stand firm against regional turmoil fueled by “the Zionist administration’s unimaginable schemes and occupation strategies.” He called on society to remain united against efforts to sow division.
Kurtulmuş stressed that the government is pursuing the vision of a “Terror-Free Türkiye” to end the decadeslong scourge that has burdened the nation. He noted that a cross-party parliamentary commission, representing nearly 95% of the electorate and including 11 political parties, is working to secure peace and prevent any return to terrorism.
“With the Terror-Free Türkiye initiative, we are working hard to end terrorism, which has plagued our 100-year history as a Republic for 50 years and has sadly been like a chain around Türkiye. We aim to promote full unity, solidarity, and brotherhood across the country,” Kurtulmuş underlined.
Quoting a civil society representative, he added: “We must bury weapons, not our children. Hopefully, the children of this nation will no longer become martyrs.”
Families of terror victims and veterans of counterterrorism met a parliamentary committee for the terror-free Türkiye initiative on Tuesday, as the country presses on for the elimination of the PKK through disarmament.
The “Terror-Free Türkiye” initiative seeks to permanently eliminate terrorism from national life by promoting unity, strengthening democratic institutions, and dismantling the PKK and other groups that have plagued the country for decades.
The initiative launched by Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairperson Devlet Bahçeli had its first tangible progress in February when Öcalan accepted Bahçeli’s call and urged the group to lay down its weapons. In May, the PKK announced it would dissolve itself. Last month, some 30 PKK members, including a senior leader, burned their weapons in a ceremony in northern Iraq. Although symbolic, the gesture marked the first time that the group had laid down arms in its campaign of violence for more than four decades.
The committee first convened on Aug. 8 with the participation of lawmakers from most parties, including the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), its ally MHP, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), a key actor in the initiative due to its intricate links to the terrorist group. The opposition Good Party (IP) abstained from joining the committee. The IP is among several small parties opposing the initiative.
Although it is not authorized to draft bills, the committee will issue recommendations to Parliament, which may subsequently discuss and adopt them as bills.
The committee is expected to wrap up work by the end of this year, though this may be extended based on developments.
Although Parliament is in summer recess, the committee will continue to work without interruption. Kurtulmuş serves as chairperson but is not eligible to vote in the committee’s voting processes. AK Party’s committee members include former Justice Minister Abdülhamit Gül. CHP’s committee members will consist of deputy parliamentary group chair Murat Emir, Deputy Chairs Gökçe Gökçen and Murat Bakan, and lawmakers from Istanbul, Diyarbakır, Ankara and Muğla. Among them are Türkan Elçi, the widow of Diyarbakır Bar Association’s former Chair Tahir Elçi, who died in 2015 in crossfire during a shootout between police officers and PKK members, and Sezgin Tanrıkulu, a prominent parliamentarian who has often made headlines for his heavy criticism of counterterrorism efforts.
