ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The co-chair of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM Party) on Tuesday welcomed comments by Devlet Bahceli, a key ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, urging direct talks with imprisoned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, calling them “extremely important.”

Bahceli, the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), said on Tuesday he would visit Ocalan if the proposed commission avoids meeting with him, despite his earlier call to skip such talks to advance the peace process between Ankara and the PKK.

If direct contacts with Ocalan are not going to be organized, "I will take three of my coworkers with me; I will not hesitate or shy away from going to Imrali with our own means, nor will I refrain from meeting face-to-face around a table,” Bahceli said, speaking on the sidelines of the MHP’s meeting with the parliamentary commission. 

DEM Party co-chair Tuncer Bakirhan described Bahceli’s remarks as “extremely important,” calling it a demonstration of “the courage to take on a historic responsibility,” a DEM Party statement quoted him as saying.

“Mr. Bahceli's statement, which aims to protect the process against attitudes that drag out and delay it, and prevent it from becoming contagious, must be acted upon immediately,” Bakirhan said.

“The Parliamentary Committee must now make its decision and go to Imrali without wasting a single day,” he said, stressing that a degree of seriousness is needed regarding the resolution of “a century-old issue.”

The comments followed the PKK’s announcement on Monday that it had taken another historic step by withdrawing its fighters from the strategic Zap region on the Kurdistan Region-Turkey border as part of the broader peace process. 

In late October, the PKK, in another step to advance the burgeoning peace process, announced the withdrawal of “all of its forces” from Turkey to the Medya Defense Areas in the Kurdistan Region, where the group’s headquarters in the Qandil Mountains is located. 

It comes as part of a broader peace initiative between Ankara and the Kurdish group, dubbed the Peace and Democratic Society Process. 

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.

Ocalan made a historic call from Imrali in February, which was subsequently followed by the PKK announcing its intention to lay down its arms and dissolve in May.

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.

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

In late September, the 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.

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.