Devlet Bahçeli, the head of Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and a key ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Tuesday he is prepared to visit imprisoned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan on İmralı Island if a cross-party parliamentary commission decides not to do so.
Bahçeli made the remarks during his party’s group meeting in parliament and said contact with Öcalan was necessary for progress in Turkey’s renewed peace initiative with the outlawed group.
Öcalan has been held on İmralı Island since 1999 and is serving a life sentence for leading the PKK, which has waged an armed campaign against the Turkish state since 1984 that resulted in more than 40,000 deaths.
Turkey and its Western allies have designated the PKK as a terrorist organization.
A new parliamentary body known as the National Solidarity, Brotherhood and Democracy Commission has been working since August on a legal framework for a shift from armed conflict to political dialogue.
Bahçeli said lawmakers should stop arguing over whether to visit İmralı because direct contact with Öcalan would be required for the talks to move forward.
He said he was willing to go himself with three party colleagues if the commission hesitates. Bahçeli had already urged it in October to visit İmralı and repeated that call on November 4.
Tuncer Bakırhan, co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), said Bahçeli showed a willingness to assume responsibility and urged the commission to make a quick decision.
Bakırhan said dialogue and face-to-face meetings were needed to support the second phase of the peace process, which the party defines as legal and political steps following the PKK’s May decision to renounce its armed campaign.
Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç said any visit to İmralı would depend on a formal decision by the parliamentary commission.
Nationalist opposition Good Party Chairman Müsavat Dervişoğlu responded to Bahçeli’s proposal with a short message on X saying, “Let him go.”
Bahçeli has in recent months made several comments that observers see as signs of strain between his party and Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which the MHP has helped govern Turkey through an alliance since 2018.
In a statement earlier this month he said releasing jailed Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş in line with a European Court of Human Rights ruling would be positive for the country, attracting public attention because Erdoğan has rejected that ruling.
Analysts say recent police operations targeting figures close to Bahçeli show friction inside the alliance. They argue that Erdoğan is trying to assert control over succession discussions in a post-Erdoğan Turkey, while insiders say Bahçeli does not want Erdoğan’s son or any family member to assume power and wants a role in shaping the transition.
Turkey’s earlier peace talks began in 2012 and collapsed in 2015. Many analysts attribute the collapse to Erdoğan’s response to strong opposition from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which preceded the DEM Party.
The HDP had passed the electoral threshold and entered parliament with a large bloc of seats in June 2015, ending the majority held by Erdoğan’s AKP.
Erdoğan then shifted to a nationalist message, ordered military operations in Kurdish-majority cities and oversaw a crackdown on Kurdish political figures and activists.
The crackdown deepened after a 2016 coup attempt and led to the arrest of HDP co-chairs Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ. Both remain in prison, and critics argue that Erdoğan has not taken meaningful steps toward peace while they remain jailed.