ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The situation of jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan “cannot remain the same as before” if the peace process with Ankara is to advance, a senior PKK commander said on Sunday.

In July 2025, the PKK held a symbolic disarmament ceremony in the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani province. Despite over a year passing, the Turkish parliament’s commission tasked with finalizing the peace process has yet to propose a legal framework for the next steps. 

Mustafa Karasu, a senior PKK commander, stressed that Ocalan’s situation “cannot remain the same as before,” referring to the imprisonment of the PKK leader on Turkey’s secluded Imrali island since 1999, with calls that his freedom must be ensured to guarantee the peace process. 

“If it remains the same, progress on the process cannot be carried out. He will have no contact with the public, he will not address the public through the press, he will have no contact with us … if the current situation continues … this process will not progress as it should,” Karasu told the PKK-affiliated Medya Haber TV. 

He called on Ankara to take such matters into consideration to resolve a “century-old problem,” stressing that Ocalan’s freedom must be ensured “without much delay.” 

On Tuesday, Ocalan urged lasting guarantees to secure the “Kurdish-Turkish alliance,” calling it a “cornerstone” for Turkey’s future, after a delegation from Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party, the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), traveled to Imrali and met with the imprisoned leader. 

Karasu further asserted that the Kurdish question in Turkey cannot be addressed as a “security problem,” stressing that Ankara must enact legal guarantees to reflect that approach. 

In February, the Turkish parliament approved a report drafted by the committee tasked with overseeing the implementation of the process. The report called for not labeling non-violent actions and freedom of expression as “terrorism”, and for the reintegration of PKK members who gave up their weapons back into society.

Earlier in July, DEM Party lawmaker Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit criticized “a lack of genuine legal frameworks and political responses” in the Ankara-PKK peace process. 

The Turkish parliament extended its legislative session beyond its scheduled July 1 summer recess, with the new legislative year set to begin on October 1.

Ocalan made a historic call from prison in February 2025, which was subsequently followed by the PKK announcing its intention to lay down its arms and dissolve in May.