ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Jailed Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas on Tuesday welcomed comments from Devlet Bahceli, a key ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who asserted that the former's release would prove beneficial for Ankara, with Demirtas describing the call as the breaking of a "taboo."

Bahceli, the leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), had made his comment after a parliamentary meeting on Tuesday, asserting that Demirtas’s release "will be beneficial for Turkey."

The comments came a day after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Monday rejected Ankara’s final appeal in the case of Demirtas, whose rights the court has repeatedly found were violated.

“Mr. Devlet Bahceli bravely broke taboos at today's group meeting, demonstrating that peace cannot be built by surrendering to fear. I wholeheartedly congratulate him and thank him sincerely,” Demirtas said in a letter on Tuesday.

Turkey launched a crackdown in 2016, arresting the co-chairs of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which currently exists under the name the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), and several other lawmakers, accusing them of having ties with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Demirtas, while embracing the ongoing peace process between the PKK and Ankara, stressed that “If we remain fixated on the mistakes of the past while collectively trying to turn a new page, we will also be mortgaging our future.”

The peace process was initiated last year by Bahceli, who urged jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan to address the Turkish parliament and call on his group to disarm.

Since then, a Turkish parliamentary commission has been established to create a legal framework for the peace process, with its sessions being held confidentially. The commission announced in late October that it will submit a proposal to the assembly outlining the next steps.

Demirtas asserted his support for the success of the ongoing peace process under democratic policies and the elimination of weapons, adding that Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on Imrali Island since 1999, "is clear and resolute on this matter." 

Bahceli had also earlier suggested that the Turkish parliament should hold direct talks with Ocalan on the Kurdish issue.

The PKK—designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union—made the decision to disband in early May following the call by Ocalan, marking an end to their decades-long insurgency.