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A Turkish pro-government columnist suggested Thursday that jailed former pro-Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtas could soon be released from prison following the Turkish Parliament’s approval of a framework law with a record 467 votes.
Writing in his column for the Turkish daily Hurriyet, Ahmet Hakan said the size of the parliamentary majority behind the legislation had changed the political picture surrounding the process.
He described the 467-vote approval as a record and portrayed the result as a strong indication of political and societal consensus behind the legislation.
Hakan then turned briefly to Demirtas, who is being held in Edirne prison, and suggested that his release could be imminent.
“This time, what has been coming really is coming: It looks like Selahattin Demirtas will be released before long,” Hakan wrote, using a Turkish expression indicating that something is expected to happen soon.
Hakan did not provide a specific timetable for a possible release or cite a judicial decision ordering Demirtas’ release.
A separate remark by Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Deputy Chair Feti Yildiz also drew attention to Demirtas’ status under the new framework.
During a television broadcast, a Turkish journalist said Demirtas’ brother Nurettin Demirtas, who has been part of the PKK’s mountain cadre, would be able to return while Selahattin Demirtas’ situation remained unclear.
Yildiz, one of the prominent figures involved in the framework law process, then sent a note to the program saying, “Selahattin Demirtas is covered by the law.”
Yildiz’s comment indicated that Demirtas falls within the scope of the legislation, but it did not amount to an announcement that he would be released or specify when any such release could take place.
Demirtas is the former co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Türkiye’s main pro-Kurdish party at the time. The party’s political tradition is now represented in Parliament by the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party).
He has been jailed since November 2016 on terrorism-related charges.
In May 2024, a court convicted Demirtas over the deadly 2014 protests and sentenced him to more than 40 years in prison.
He also received a separate two-year sentence in 2021 for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The Turkish Parliament on Monday passed the Bill on Strengthening National Solidarity and Social Cohesion, which was prepared as part of the Terror-Free Türkiye process.
Lawmakers approved the legislation after about 12 hours of debate, with 467 voting in favor—nearly four-fifths of Parliament’s 600 members—reflecting broad political consensus behind the process.
The bill sets out procedures for suspending investigations, prosecutions, convictions and related proceedings after authorities determine that the PKK/KCK terrorist organization and affiliated groups have ended their activities and surrendered their weapons.
Its explanatory rationale stresses that the measure does not constitute an amnesty, abolish convictions or terminate criminal liability. It describes the arrangement as “limited and conditional” within the criminal justice and penal system.
The law covers offenses such as membership in, aiding or promoting the terrorist organization, as well as crimes committed as part of its activities and terrorism-financing offenses committed in its favor.
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