ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party on Thursday described its earlier meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as “important,” while both sides reaffirmed their commitment to continue the peace process, stressing the need for Ankara to take “concrete steps” to advance the process.

Erdogan on Wednesday received the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party’s (DEM Party) mediator delegation, Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar, for a closed-door meeting attended by Turkey’s spy chief Ibrahim Kalin.

DEM Party is the main mediator of the peace process between Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

“During the meeting, the shared will to continue the process with determination was reaffirmed,” read a statement from the DEM Party on Thursday. 

The pro-Kurdish party added that among the topics discussed was Ankara’s “need to intensify its efforts to take concrete and reassuring steps regarding the ongoing process,” including actions by the Turkish parliament, ministries, and other state institutions.

“We held an important meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan,” it added.

A parliamentary commission was established last year to create a legal framework for a renewed peace process, following an initial call by jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan for his group, which waged a decades-long armed campaign against the Turkish state, to disarm.

The DEM Party also stressed the “necessity of preparing the report” by the commission with an “inclusive approach,” saying it would provide a solid foundation for democratization and freedoms, and for the legal framework to be established “without delay and with the broadest possible consensus.”

The head of the commission in early February announced that its report on the next phase of the process is set to be finalized in the coming days.

Despite the advancement of the peace process and the halting of the PKK's four-decade-long campaign against the Turkish state, many observers have remained skeptical of the next steps, citing legal ambiguities and a lack of clarity.

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.

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