SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – A People's Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party delegation on Monday left for Imrali island to meet with the imprisoned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Leader Abdullah Ocalan.

The meeting—marking the fourth meeting by the delegation to the Imrali prison—comes less than two weeks after DEM Party MPs Pervin Buldan and Sirri Sureyya Onder met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, where they exchanged views on the efforts by the party toward brokering peace between the two long-standing adversaries.

Buldan, who heads the delegation, joined by lawyer Faik Ozgur Erol, both of whom are members of the DEM Party Imrali Delegation, "went to Imrali Island to meet with Abdullah Ocalan," according to a DEM Party-affiliated news outlet.

The meeting this time around is conducted in the absence of Onder, who is receiving treatment after being rushed to the hospital earlier in April for having a heart attack.

"The meeting we had with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his delegation took place in an extremely positive, constructive, productive, and hopeful atmosphere for the future," read a statement by the Imrali delegation after their meeting with the Turkish president.

It was agreed "that a period in which there is no violence and conflict and the democratic and political sphere will be strengthened is of vital importance for our country, our citizens, and our region," the statement added.

Following an October proposal by the now indisposed Turkish Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli to free Ocalan in exchange for the PKK laying down arms, a mediating delegation from the DEM Party spoke to the jailed PKK leader on the prison island of Imrali. Bahceli's initiative was immediately endorsed by Erdogan.

Buldan and Onder led the first delegation visiting Ocalan in the Imrali and participated in a second and third meeting later on in January and February as well, ultimately resulting in a peace address by the jailed leader that prompted the PKK to declare a unilateral ceasefire with Turkey to "pave the way" for the call.