Today (August 5), a newly launched commission in the Turkish Parliament meets for the first time. The commission, aimed at solving Turkey’s long-running Kurdish issue, follows months of negotiations with Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned leader of the banned Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) militant group.

Following a disarmament call by Öcalan in February, the PKK announced their dissolution in May and performed a weapons-burning ceremony in Northern Iraq in mid-July.

The launch of a parliamentary commission was expected as the next phase in the solution process following the landmark announcements by the PKK over the past several months.

The official name being given to the commission is “The National Unity and Solidarity Commission.”

Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), under intense judicial pressure since the March 19th arrest of Istanbul Mayor and presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, announced last week it would join the commission.

Nationalist Action Party (MHP) Chairman Devlet Bahçeli, the ultranationalist politician who kickstarted the........

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