ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Youth representatives of Kurdistan Region political parties on Wednesday met the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) after filing a request with the Turkish justice ministry to meet jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan amid the ongoing peace process.

“Our Co-Chair Tuncer Bakirhan, our Sirnak MP Newroz Uysal Aslan, and our Youth Assembly Co-Spokesperson Rezan Kaganarslan met with young people from the Kurdistan Region at our party headquarters,” the DEM Party said on X.

“The young people who came from the Kurdistan Region submitted a request to the Ministry of Justice for a meeting with Mr. Ocalan,” it added.

The DEM Party is the main mediator between Ocalan and the Turkish state.

According to local media, the DEM Party youth assembly said they had been “convening a delegation from Southern Kurdistan [Kurdistan Region] for nearly three months as part of our National Unity efforts.”

The assembly added that more parties from the Kurdistan Region wanted to be part of the delegation, but visa regulations did not allow it. Additionally, they mentioned holding several meetings during the past days under the “National Unity” efforts.

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.

A Turkish parliamentary delegation visited the PKK leader on Imrali prison island on Monday, saying that "positive results were obtained" from the tete-a-tete.

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.