ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) on Friday said it will not send a representative to meet with jailed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan on Imrali island, protesting the lack of transparency in the peace process commission.

A Turkish parliamentary commission formed to draft a legal framework for the peace process between Ankara and the PKK has been holding its sessions behind closed doors for over three months. The commission’s 18th session was held on Friday where they discussed potentially sending a delegation to meet Ocalan at Imrali.

“I would like to state that it is not right to hold a meeting where the visit to Imrali will be discussed, hidden from our nation,” said Murat Emir, deputy leader of CHP’s parliamentary group, during Friday’s session.

“It is important for everyone to clearly state the positions of each political party. As CHP, we do not believe it is right to assign members to the commission’s delegation,” he added.

Ocalan and the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) have repeatedly expressed concern over the lack of concrete measures to establish a political framework ensuring the success of the peace process. 

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

“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 said in a statement on Thursday. “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.

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.