Politics Service
While uncertainties over the resolution process continue there are crises on many issues from whether or not to go to İmralı to briefing the commission in Parliament. There is criticism that the process is not being conducted transparently enough. CHP was targeted after refusing to send a member to the commission visit to Imrali. CHP Leader Özgür Özel said “The İmralı visit cannot be treated as a crossroads for a resolution”. After reports that the delegation went to Imrali to meet Abdullah Öcalan, Hüseyin Yayman, the AKP member of the delegation who was quoted as denying the development and saying “This information is wrong. I did not go to the island and I do not know who did. There is no truth to this information. It will become clear in the coming days”, confirmed hours later that he had gone to the meeting following the statement by the Speaker’s Office.
DEM Party spokesperson Ayşegül Doğan said yesterday that the details of the meeting held with Abdullah Öcalan on Imrali should be shared with the public. The criticisms over lack of transparency in the process over the past two weeks are as follows.
CLOSED TO THE PRESS
The 16th meeting of the National Solidarity Brotherhood and Democracy Commission was held closed to the press on the grounds that Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç were being heard. The meeting took place after the PKK announced its withdrawal from Turkey and in his opening speech Numan Kurtulmuş stated that the commission was “in the final stage of preparing its report”. Despite the objections of 5 MPs including TİP’s Ahmet Şık and EMEP’s İskender Bayhan it was decided that the meeting would be held closed to the press. Şık and Bayhan reacted to the decision.
Whether or not to go to Imrali was also debated for a long time in the public. MHP Leader Devlet Bahçeli said “If necessary I will take 3 of my colleagues and go to Imrali myself”. The commission meeting expected to take place afterwards was then postponed. The CHP along with the DEVA, Gelecek and Saadet parties forming the Yeniyol Party group in Parliament decided not to send a member for the Imrali visit. In the vote held in a closed session on Friday 21 November it was decided with 32 yes votes to send a delegation to the island. In addition to AKP, MHP and DEM Party, EMEP and TİP also voted yes for the visit to the island. President Erdoğan said on 24 November that the commission’s decision to meet Abdullah Öcalan would pave the way for the process and contribute to it.
UNACCEPTABLE
The commission which was due to meet last Wednesday to be briefed was postponed once again and announced for 4 December. In a letter submitted to the Speaker’s Office, EMEP İstanbul MP Bayhan stressed that the meeting of the process commission should be held openly to the public and that the agenda of the meeting should be the Imrali meeting. Bayhan pointed out that starting work on a report before this meeting takes place and before all the details and minutes of the meeting are shared with the public would not be right in terms of the function and purpose of the commission and in terms of the progress of the process and responding to expectations and said “On the other hand such an approach would mean that the meeting is being hidden from the public which is unacceptable for us. For this reason the commission’s meeting on 4 December 2025 should be held openly to the public and its agenda should be the İmralı meetings. The report work should be planned to start later after this meeting”.
The decision to postpone the meeting was also criticised by TİP. In a petition submitted to the commission chair by TİP MP Ahmet Şık the following statements were included. “We have been informed that the commission meeting planned to be held today has been postponed indefinitely. In addition at the last meeting it was requested that evaluations for the commission report be submitted by Friday. First of all before the minutes of the meeting held on Monday on Imrali Island are delivered to the commission members and before a briefing is given on the content of the meeting it should not be expected that views, suggestions and contributions be given to the draft text. The deadline until Friday should be postponed to a date after the briefing.”
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Çözüm süreci şeffaf yürüsün, published in BirGün newspaper on November 28, 2025.
