Kurdish DEM party slams Turkey's "hesitant" steps on PKK peace

ANKARA,— Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party delivered one of its sharpest rebukes yet of the government’s approach to a delicate peace process, signaling a deepening divide between Ankara and Kurdish PKK militants over how to advance efforts to end a conflict spanning four decades.

DEM, parliament’s third-largest party, helped broker steps toward peace between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK. The conflict has claimed more than 40,000 lives since 1984, Turkey said.

DEM co-chair Tulay Hatimogullari told party lawmakers the government was failing to keep pace with momentum generated by a February 2025 call from jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan to lay down arms.

“The government is acting in a hesitant, timid and stalling manner,” she said, adding that all sides should be moving swiftly toward peace.

All parties involved, including DEM, the PKK and President Tayyip Erdogan’s government, have traded blame over perceived delays, more than a year after hopes were raised for a breakthrough.

The PKK halted attacks and announced in May 2025 it had decided to disband and end its armed struggle. Ankara, however, said the group must do more and that disarmament must be verified before any legal or political steps are taken.

A Turkish parliamentary commission voted overwhelmingly in February to approve a roadmap outlining legal reforms tied to the PKK’s disbandment, moving the process into the legislative arena.

The insurgency has fed instability across Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast and spilled into Iraqi Kurdistan and Syrian Kurdistan.

Hatimogullari warned that continued delays risked collapsing the broader peace effort.

The PKK launched its armed insurgency in 1984, seeking greater autonomy for Kurds in Turkish Kurdistan.

Turkey still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds as a distinct group. Kurds represent close to 30% of Turkey’s 85 million people, cited from 2012 statistics.

(With files from Reuters | Agencies)