Terror-free Türkiye committee set to pave way for legislation

Representatives from various think tanks attended the new session of the National Solidarity, Brotherhood, and Democracy Committee at Parliament in Ankara on Wednesday. The committee, established to discuss suggestions for advancing the terror-free Türkiye initiative, will soon conclude its work, its chair, Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş, said on Wednesday.

The initiative aims to put an end to the decades-old campaign of violence by the PKK terrorist group.

Kurtulmuş said at the opening of the committee that so far, some 80 people have attended the committee’s sessions, which are comprised of lawmakers from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and opposition parties. Those heard by the committee include everyone from families of victims of PKK terrorism, representatives of business bodies, mothers of PKK members, ministers and the intelligence chief.

“Overall, we had meetings amounting to more than 50 hours. In the past 11 sessions, we had extraordinarily valuable discussions. The minutes of the meeting totaled approximately 830 pages. Now, we are nearing the end of this briefing stage of the committee’s work. In the coming days, we will hear from more nongovernmental organizations (NGO) proposed by the committee members and will start drafting a report consisting of recommendations for Parliament’s General Assembly,” Kurtulmuş said.

Parliament is currently in a summer recess and will resume work next month. The committee was the only working body of Parliament since August.

“We will now enter a phase where we will prepare a committee report and (recommendations) for new legal amendments (for the terror-free Türkiye initiative),” Kurtulmuş stated.

The speaker said the committee’s work was very disciplined and fruitful, “better than what we planned.”

“Everybody spoke his/her mind, and we never interfered. Everything is recorded here. What we agree upon is that if the committee successfully concludes its work, it will be a historic development, a critical threshold for Turkish politics and democracy,” he said.

The Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), the Dicle Social Research Center (DITAM), Rawest Research, the Kurdish Studies Center (KSC), the Foundation for Ecopolitical Culture, Education and Research Foundation (EKEAV), the Center for Sociopolitical Field Studies (SAHAM), the Turkish Economic Policy Research Foundation (TEPAV) and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (ORSAM) representatives were set to speak at Wednesday’s session.

The initiative is the brainchild of Devlet Bahçeli, the head of the government’s ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The government facilitated the initiative after Bahçeli’s call to the PKK’s jailed ringleader, Abdullah Öcalan, to urge his group to dissolve. Turkish intelligence now monitors the current stage of the initiative, which took a new turn after PKK members started abandoning arms at a ceremony in northern Iraq this summer.

The PKK killed tens of thousands of people in its violent campaign for more than four decades. Its attacks began in the countryside in southeastern Türkiye before spreading to big cities in the west. Among the terrorist group’s victims are civil servants working in the southeastern and eastern parts of Türkiye, security personnel, as well as civilians, whom the group viewed as collaborating with authorities. The group’s indiscriminate attacks claiming civilian lives accumulated public outrage over the years and the state has long followed policies strictly involving constant military and police operations to wipe out the group.

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 Good Party (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. One such proposal is on the status of the PKK. Media outlets reported that the ruling party would suggest redefining the PKK as “a terrorist organization in the process of dissolution and disarmament,” and that might further accelerate the initiative that began last year.

Media reports stated that the AK Party planned to introduce a separate law, rather than amend the counterterrorism laws, exclusively for this initiative. The current Turkish Penal Code has no articles on the dissolution of terrorist groups, although past amendments and regulations allowed lenient sentences for surrendered terrorists. The planned bill will also serve as a guideline for the dissolution of other terrorist groups, media reports say.

Türkiye is considering reintegration measures for PKK members not involved in any crimes and who volunteered to abandon arms, according to a report by the Sabah newspaper, but more than three dozen members of the group of senior cadres and some 300 members in lower ranks will not be allowed to return to Türkiye. These include PKK terrorists known to authorities and involved in masterminding or participating in acts of terrorism. Türkiye will allow them to stay in Iraq or Syria for a while, but a permanent stay after the PKK’s complete disarmament is out of question, according to the reports. The Sabah report also says they would be “advised” to leave for Europe or some African countries with good ties with Türkiye.

At the session, professor Murat Yeşiltaş, director of foreign policy research at SETA, shared the details of the think tank’s opinion poll on the terror-free Türkiye initiative. Some 62% of interviewees think violence would escalate again if the initiative fails. Thus, it is essential to have a legal foundation for the efforts in order to build public trust and social harmony. The disarmament process should not be tackled as a unilateral state initiative; otherwise, it won’t last. It is critical for different segments of society to support the process. It is crucial to have a joint narrative that society will agree upon, to achieve political and social efficiency,” he said. Yeşiltaş noted that people’s “expectation of social peace” was 77% according to SETA’s poll. “The rate of those wanting an end to losses of security personnel is 76% and the rate of those wanting terrorism to end is 75%,” he underlined.

Mesut Azizoğlu, chair of DITAM, commented on the ongoing efforts of the committee and stated that there were crucial expectations from the committee.

“Primarily, there are demands for establishing a legal framework for the process. There’s also a need to generate public consent, ensure a sense of justice, and work toward a shared future. First and foremost, the segment of society that must be convinced of a solution, especially in terms of justice, is the Turks. Meanwhile, the group that needs to be addressed to ensure justice is the Kurds,” Azizoğlu said. The PKK, claimed to be founded to fight for Kurdish rights, exploited the state of the community, especially in southeastern Türkiye, and recruited disillusioned Kurds to its cause.

Roj Esir Girasun, director of Rawest Research, described the process as a natural outcome of the sociological transformation of the Kurdish population and regional developments.

“In our research before (the start of the terror-free Türkiye initiative), we found that 65% of Kurds categorically oppose seeking rights through armed struggle. Of the remaining 35%, about 20% are hesitant or uncertain. Only 15% support the idea of armed struggle. This shift highlights the significant changes since the 1990s,” he said.

KSC President Ibrahim Reha Ruhavioğlu said 80% of Kurds and 60% of Turks support the initiative. However, he noted that public confidence and hope have yet to rise accordingly.

Ahmet Tarık Çelenk, a board member of EKEA, emphasized that the chances for resolving the issue are higher now than at any point in the past century.