A critical meeting for Turkey's Kurdish problem

The meeting to be held this week between Turkish government officials and outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan in the island-prison of ?mral?, south of Istanbul is expected to be a critical one for the future of the talks concerning a political settlement in the country?s chronic Kurdish problem, according to sources on both sides who wished to remain anonymous.

Officials from the Public Order and Security Directorate (KDGM), which is authorized by the government to conduct the talks, the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (M?T) and a more-crowded-than-usual delegation of the Peoples? Democratic Party (HDP), which is a party focused on the Kurdish problem, are expected to be in the meeting with Öcalan.

The reason that makes the meeting more important than the previous ones after being initiated by then-Prime Minister, now President, Tayyip Erdo?an is the coming parliamentary elections on June 7.

Both Erdo?an and Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu of the Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) government want Öcalan to announce an ?absolute non-action? status, if not a total farewell to arms, a fight which has been continuing since 1984, as soon as possible, also in order to secure a peaceful election. Deputy Prime Minister Yalç?n Akdo?an said in a public speech last week that the government expected such an announcement by March 21, the equinox day of Nevruz, which is also celebrated as the cultural new year by the Kurds.

On the Nevruz of 2013, via a letter he sent to the rally in Diyarbak?r, had called the PKK militants to leave Turkey to Iraq where the PKK?s military headquarters is with their weapons, but it did not work as planned, especially after the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant...