Abdullah Öcalan

Emre Taner ran the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT) from 2005 to 2010. A veteran intelligence officer who had been recruited as a young student in Ankara University, Taner was the one who had proposed and launched a move to establish dialogue with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in 2008-2009. 

There are new developments on the presidential system and the capital punishment topics after talks between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli. 

The Republican People's Party (CHP) will continue to "stand by all the oppressed" in Turkey, despite growing pressure from the government, CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has vowed, refuting accusations that his party supported terrorism. 

The EU issued a strong new call on the Turkish government on Nov. 8 to resume political dialogue with opposition groups and safeguard its democracy, describing recent developments as "extremely worrying."

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım repeated on Nov. 1 that his Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) is keen to pass constitutional changes through cooperation with the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), but if the CHP is hesitant they will press ahead anyway.

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım repeated on Nov. 1 that his Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) is keen to pass constitutional changes through cooperation with the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), but if the CHP is hesitant they will press ahead anyway.

President Tayyip Erdoğan's remarks on Oct. 29, in which he said reinstating the death penalty could be on parliament's agenda "soon," rekindled debates about the quality of democracy in Turkey and also put the country's position in further jeopardy vis-a-vis European institutions.

The Eighth Congress of the European wing of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which Ankara accuses of being an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), was held in Brussels on Sept. 24. 

The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which focuses on the Kurdish issue, has called on both the government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to silence their arms, saying that dialogue could end the clashes that have stricken the country for the past 14 months.

We are once again face-to-face with a critical question. Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), has made a new call again, through his brother.