Reports: Moscow Has Not Ruled Out Trilateral Meeting between Presidents of Russia, US, China

Cemil Bayık, a member of the Kurdistan Communities Union’s Executive Council, has warned that the peace process centered on the PKK’s dissolution and disarmament could come to a halt unless Türkiye takes concrete steps toward democratic reform.

The Turkish government calls the initiative “terrorism-free Türkiye.” Bayık said disarmament should be tied to entry into the democratic political arena and the integration of PKK members into Turkish society. He criticized the National Solidarity and Social Integration Law, passed by parliament on Aug. 10, calling it a beginning but saying it remained incomplete.

“

The language used in the law is deeply flawed.

Bayık said the law did not clearly explain its purpose. In his view, simply stating that terrorism would end weakened the legislation. “The language used in the law is deeply flawed,” he said in remarks to the PKK-linked Firat News Agency carried by Turkish media. “We have made clear on every occasion that this process is not limited to disarmament. It is important to spell out the democratic steps that disarmament requires, because arms will be laid down in order to enter a democratic political arena.”

“

We have made clear on every occasion that this process is not limited to disarmament. It is important to spell out the democratic steps that disarmament requires, because arms will be laid down in order to enter a democratic political arena.

He also identified the status of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan and the group’s senior cadres as a major unresolved issue. The law, approved by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Aug. 18, provides for deferred sentences, suspended prosecutions and the conditional return of PKK members who surrender their weapons. Information cited in the report says it excludes 230 senior figures, who would not be allowed to return and could instead be housed in a safe zone in Sulaimaniya in northern Iraq.

Bayık said the Turkish government would bear responsibility if the process faltered because democratic measures were absent. “If this process does not advance through democratic steps, it will be obstructed, and the government will bear responsibility,” he said. He called parliament the decisive institution for resolving the Kurdish issue and urged constitutional and legal amendments recognizing Kurdish existence, language, culture, political will and rights to local self-government.

“

If this process does not advance through democratic steps, it will be obstructed, and the government will bear responsibility.