10.08.2026 11:00
Yeniden Refah Party Chairman Fatih Erbakan announced that the bill known as the 'framework law' does not grant rights to Kurdish citizens and only includes amnesty for PKK/KCK members, so they can neither say 'yes' nor 'no' to the proposal and will therefore abstain from voting. Erbakan argued that the scope of the amnesty should be taken to a referendum.
Chairman of the New Welfare Party (Yeniden Refah Partisi) Fatih Erbakan announced that his party would vote "abstain" on the "framework law" proposal. Claiming that they do not have information about the details of the framework law, Erbakan alleged that the regulation does not bring any improvement for Kurds in terms of freedom, human rights, and equality, and only includes the release of PKK/KCK members.
"WE WILL VOTE ABSTAIN"
Fatih Erbakan argued that the amnesty scope of the framework law should be taken to a referendum and announced that the New Welfare Party would vote "abstain" on the framework law.
In a written statement on his social media account, Fatih Erbakan used the following expressions:
"As is known, the law proposal called the 'framework law,' which has been announced as the first step of the so-called 'process' about which we unfortunately could not obtain detailed information, has been submitted to the Turkish Grand National Assembly. The first thing to be said regarding the law proposal that passed the Commission is that this proposal has nothing to do with our millions of Kurdish brothers. The provisions in the proposal regarding the special arrangement of the execution system for one organization do not bring any improvement to our Kurdish brothers in terms of freedom, human rights, and equality; they only include the release (implicitly the pardon) of PKK/KCK terrorist members.
Therefore, the idea that these articles will establish Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood and deliver the long-awaited fundamental rights to our Kurdish brothers is completely baseless. These provisions are not aimed at national solidarity and social integration, but rather at the wholesale pardon of PKK/KCK terrorists, including those sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment, moreover without seeking any condition of remorse.
"WE DO NOT FIND IT RIGHT TO SAY EITHER 'YES' OR 'NO'"
In addition to these concerns where we point out the contradictions to our Constitution and criminal execution system, we do not find it right to say 'no' to this proposal due to the provisions in its content regarding ending the actual existence of the PKK/KCK terrorist organization and all affiliated formations, the determination by the authorities of the Republic of Türkiye of the destruction of all weapons and ammunition under their possession, and thus the liquidation of the organization.
On the other hand, we consider voting 'yes' to this proposal a liability because it includes the wholesale pardon of PKK/KCK terrorists, both those in the mountain cadres and those serving sentences in prisons, and the restoration of their political rights within 2 to 3 years.
As the New Welfare Party, as we have long stated, the decision regarding the fate of PKK/KCK terrorists should not be made by state cadres or government partners, but by the families of martyrs and our veterans, that is, our nation; the amnesty scope of the 'framework law' should be directly taken to a referendum. Due to the aforementioned reasons and the uncertainties regarding the subsequent steps the process entails, we, as the New Welfare Party, submit to our noble nation that we will vote 'abstain' on the 'framework law'."