Ministers brief parliament panel on anti-terror drive
ANKARA
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç briefed a parliamentary commission on Oct. 30 on the government’s “terror-free Türkiye” project, as lawmakers near completion of a report outlining the initiative's path.
The meeting marked the 16th session of the National Solidarity, Brotherhood and Democracy Commission, chaired by Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş, who said the panel was “slowly progressing toward preparing the final report.”
Under the project, PKK declared a ceasefire and announced plans to disarm and dissolve after a call from its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Öcalan. The latest meeting followed the terror group’s announcement that it was withdrawing all its forces from Türkiye to northern Iraq.
“In the coming period... the Turkish Grand National Assembly will implement the legal regulations required by this process,” Kurtulmuş said. “Our commission’s important task at this point is not to prepare individual legislative texts, but to propose a general framework and submit it to the Turkish Grand National Assembly.”
Since its establishment, the commission has heard from cabinet members, intelligence officials, labor unions, business associations, legal experts and families of fallen soldiers. Earlier this month, lawmakers traveled to Diyarbakır in Türkiye’s southeast to hold on-site consultations and meet with local civil society groups.
The main event of the visit was a large gathering attended by hundreds of representatives from non-governmental organizations, where participants exchanged views and offered proposals on the government’s peace efforts.
Lawmakers are expected to present a package of reforms once their work is completed.
“This model, which we can call the Türkiye model, will hopefully be taken as an example in many countries and shed light on conflict resolution, once it is successfully concluded in the coming period and we achieve the goal of a completely terror-free Türkiye,” Kurtulmuş said.
While the possibility of direct talks with Öcalan has been raised in public debate, Kurtulmuş said earlier that such a meeting was “not currently on the agenda.”
“If it were brought to the agenda, the commission would decide by qualified majority, and we would abide by that,” he added.
