ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The pro-Kurdish People’s Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party delegation’s visit to the Kurdistan Region came upon a request from jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan to consult with President Masoud Barzani and other Kurdish officials, DEM Party MP and delegation member Berdan Ozturk told The New Region on Sunday.

“Our Imrali delegation’s visit here was upon a request by Ocalan to organize a meeting with Mr. Masoud Barzani,” Ozturk told The New Region, adding that the visit is to “convey Ocalan’s greetings [to the Kurdish officials]… and also obtain their suggestions, that is what this visit is, their suggestions are important.”

Ozturk added that after the conclusion of the Kurdistan Region meetings, the delegation will issue a press release.

The New Region understands that the delegation will meet with Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) President Masoud Barzani, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leader Bafel Talabani, and Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region Qubad Talabani.

The delegation concluded their meeting with President Masoud Barzani at the time this article was published.

The DEM Party delegation consists of the Imrali delegation members Pervin Buldan, Sirri Sureyya Onder, and the party’s key officials.

The meetings will include talks on the Kurdish issue in Turkey, and the details of the delegation’s recent two meetings with PKK leader Ocalan. 

In a major move, Devlet Bahceli, head of the far-right Turkish Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), proposed in October allowing Ocalan to appear before the legislature and declare the dissolution of the PKK, an initiative immediately endorsed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish political landscape. 

This initiative led to the DEM Party MPs Pervin Buldan and Sirri Sureyya Onder being granted the rare permission to meet with Ocalan at Imrali prison in December amid a shift in Ankara’s stance of prohibiting contact with the PKK founder.

Tuncer Bakirhan, a Kurdish lawmaker in the Turkish parliament, revealed last week that Ocalan will “make a historic call” for a permanent solution to the Kurdish issue in Turkey.

MHP’s Bahceli, however, after the first meeting with Ocalan, warned that any other meeting with jailed Ocalan must end in the dissolution of the PKK.

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.

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.