ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Imprisoned Kurdish political leader Selahattin Demirtas on Saturday announced his “full support” for the renewed efforts at a peace process between the Turkish state and Kurds, but stressed the need for “transparency”, following a visit by pro-Kurdish lawmakers.

A delegation from Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) on Saturday visited Demirtas, former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), in Edirne Prison.

The same delegation visited Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in Imrali prison in late December.

In a statement following the visit, Demirtas thanked the delegation for their efforts and expressed his “full trust and support” to DEM Party and Ocalan “who is making great efforts for democratic solution and peace on the Imrali Isolation Island.”

Demirtas emphasized the need for transparency from the DEM Party delegation with the parliament and the public, as well the importance of adopting a “language of peace,” and staying away from the language of “threats” and “blackmail”.

“As actors engaged in politics on democratic and peaceful grounds, we desire, demand and support a permanent end to conflicts and violence,” wrote Demirtas.

“We state that we will stand with Mr. Ocalan if he is to take initiative in this regard when the conditions arise. Of course, the entire initiative of a possible call lies with him,” he added.

During his meeting with the DEM Party delegation in December, Ocalan expressed his willingness to take the necessary steps to find a permanent solution for the Kurdish issue and “make the call.”

Ocalan has been serving a life sentence at Imrali prison, a small but high-security facility on Imrali Island in the Sea of Marmara, since February 1999.

Demirtas has been imprisoned since 2016 for his alleged links to the PKK.

"We are ready to provide all kinds of support for the elimination of the conflicts that have caused unspeakable suffering in these lands for years and consumed all the energy of the country, and for the establishment of a political peace," Demirtas added in his statement.

During a speech to his party’s bloc in the parliament in October, Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli proposed allowing Ocalan to appear before the legislature and declare the dissolution of the PKK.

In 2013, the Turkish government, led by then-prime minister and current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, entered a peace process with the PKK aimed at ending the decades of conflict and bloodshed. The truce was short-lived and collapsed in July 2015, leading to violent clashes in Turkey’s southeastern Kurdish areas.

The PKK is an armed group that has fought for increased Kurdish rights in Turkey for decades. The group is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara.