ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Turkey’s parliamentary peace process commission is set to convene on Friday to discuss their upcoming meeting on Imrali island with jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, state media reported.

A Turkish parliamentary commission tasked with drafting a legal framework for the peace process between Ankara and the PKK has been established with its sessions being held behind closed doors. This will be the body’s 18th session, during which the members are set to discuss sending a delegation to Imrali to meet with Ocalan, as well as evaluating the commission’s work so far.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) said it is closely monitoring “developments related to the Peace and Democratic Society Process, and specifically the commission, and the commission's meeting tomorrow.”

“The agenda of that meeting will include the meeting with Mr. Ocalan, the delegation to be formed for this meeting, the parties that will participate in this delegation,” it added.

The DEM Party has been the main mediator between the PKK and the Turkish state in the recent peace process.

Ocalan and the DEM Party have repeatedly expressed concern over the lack of concrete measures to establish a political framework ensuring the success of the peace process. Last month, a senior PKK commander urged Turkey to release Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on Imrali Island since 1999.

“For weeks, we've been searching for an answer to the question of whether the commission should go to Imrali. The answer is clear. A threshold has been created, and they're trying to bypass it now. This shouldn't be a question or a problem. We've said many times that it shouldn't be,” DEM Party’s statement continued. “Because what's at stake is peace, and the architect of this peace is Ocalan.”

Devlet Bahceli, the leader of Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), initiated the renewed peace process in October last year by urging Ocalan to address the Turkish parliament and call on his group to disarm.

Jailed Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas in a letter urged the leaders involved in the peace process to take concrete steps. The Turkish state has been criticized for failing to move forward with solid measures.

“President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, MHP leader Bahceli, and PKK founding leader Ocalan: Please don’t give up on taking concrete steps; don’t pay attention to what this one or that one says; trust yourselves and believe that 86 million are longing for peace,” he said in a letter shared on his X account on Thursday.

In July, dozens of PKK fighters burned their weapons in a symbolic disarmament ceremony in the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani province and earlier this month the group announced it will completely withdraw from Turkish soil.