According to Kurdistan Press, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the National Movement Party (MHP), on August 6 at the Presidential Complex in Beştepe, Ankara.

The meeting began at 2:00 p.m. local time and lasted about 45 minutes. The meeting was held without the presence of reporters, and neither the Turkish presidency nor the National Movement Party issued a statement about the topics of the discussion after it ended.

Burhanuddin Duran, the head of the Presidential Communications Center, announced the meeting in a message on social media before the meeting began.

This was the first meeting between Erdogan and Bahçeli after the presentation of the so-called “Framework Law” proposal to the Turkish parliament. Turkish media have suggested that the stages of approval and implementation of this proposal and subsequent steps in the peace and democratic society process were the main focus of the two leaders’ discussion; however, this has not been officially confirmed.

Erdogan and Bahçeli have met three times since the beginning of 2026.Their previous two meetings were held on January 21 and April 30.

12-Article Proposal in Parliament

The “Law on Strengthening National Solidarity and Social Integration” was submitted to the Speaker of Parliament on August 5 with the signatures of nearly 360 deputies. Devlet Bahçeli was the first politician to sign the proposal.

The proposal aims to create a legal infrastructure for the process that the Turkish government calls “Turkey without terrorism” and the DAP calls “Peace and Democratic Society Process.”

The proposed law is to be reviewed by the Parliament’s Justice Committee first and then sent to the General Assembly for a vote. The stated goal is to pass it by the end of the week; however, if the reviews are not completed, the approval process is likely to continue until August 11.Enforcement of the law subject to approval by the National Security Council

According to the published text, the implementation of the main provisions of the law will depend on the recognition of the security institutions and the approval of the Turkish National Security Council. The council must confirm the end of the organizational existence of the PKK / KCK and its affiliated groups, as well as the complete laying down of arms.

After this condition is met, investigations, trials and execution of final sentences related to the establishment or management of the organization, membership, conscious assistance, propaganda, crimes committed within the framework of organizational activity and its financing can be postponed.

According to the proposal, cases and sentences with a sentence of 15 years or less will be suspended for five years, and sentences of more than 15 years, life imprisonment and aggravated life imprisonment will be suspended for 10 years.If the individuals concerned comply with the specified conditions during this period and do not commit a new crime, the case may be closed or the sentence may be deemed to have been carried out.

In contrast, intentional homicide within the framework of organizational activity and crimes committed before June 1, 2005 that are punishable by life imprisonment or aggravated life imprisonment are excluded from the direct scope of these regulations. This exception has created ambiguity regarding Abdullah Öcalan's possibility of benefiting from the law and, according to the interpretation of a number of media outlets, will prevent him from directly benefiting from the provisions on suspension of sentence.

Differences between the text of the proposal and Bahçeli's position on Öcalan

After signing the proposed law, Bahçeli once again called for Abdullah Öcalan to be granted the "right to hope", a legal concept that includes the possibility of reviewing the life sentence and considering the possibility of conditional release after a certain period.The MHP leader had said: “Selahattin Demirtaş must return to his house, Kurdish mayors to their responsibilities and Öcalan to his right to hope; Turkey must achieve peace. Our goal is peace for Turkey and the region.”

He also responded to criticism that he had not spoken about the new process in recent meetings of the National Movement Party’s parliamentary group, stressing that Erdogan and Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmus were closely following the process and that he did not consider it right to “prevent their activities.”

Despite the importance of the Beştepe meeting and the difference between the exceptions in the proposed law and Bahçeli’s position on Öcalan’s “right to hope,” it is still unclear whether this issue was raised in the 45-minute talks between Erdogan and Bahçeli.