ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – A delegation from Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) is set to visit Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the coming days, opposition media reported. The party has been the main mediator between Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Senior DEM Party lawmaker Gulistan Kilic, speaking to ANKA News Agency on late Wednesday, said that the Imrali delegation will meet with Erdogan soon, marking the peace negotiators' third meeting with the president.

The delegation will include senior members and lawmakers from the party, including Mithat Sancar and Pervin Buldan.

The Imrali delegation, which has frequently visited detained PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan on Imrali Island over the last few months, has already met with Erdogan twice since the peace talks started, with the first meeting taking place in April and the second in July.

The third meeting is expected to take place on October 28, according to Anka

The DEM Party on Thursday said in a statement that the party has met with Kurdish political prisoners, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksedag, to brief them on the ongoing Ankara-PKK peace process, and called for their “immediate” release. 

In October 2024, Devlet Bahceli, the leader of Turkey's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), initiated the peace process by urging the parliament to allow Ocalan to address the legislature and announce the group’s dissolution.

The PKK announced its historic decision to disband following its 12th Congress in early May, in response to Ocalan's call for disarmament, ending a four-decade armed campaign against the Turkish state.

A Turkish parliamentary commission has been established to create a legal framework for the peace process, with its sessions being held confidentially.

In late September, DEM Party urged the parliament to take a new approach to the Kurdish conflict by engaging Ocalan as a “chief negotiator” in the peace process.