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Grand National Assembly Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş said no one should look for hidden motives behind the "Terror-Free Türkiye" process or pursue political calculations through it, as he answered lawmakers' questions on parliament's 2027 budget at the Plan and Budget Commission.

Kurtulmuş said the work of the National Solidarity, Fraternity and Democracy Commission had produced a roadmap and a legal framework with strong safeguards, and predicted the process would bring stability and economic development to Türkiye and the wider region.

Draft bill for deputy advisers and fewer rejected motions

Responding to requests to improve the employment rights of lawmakers' advisers, Kurtulmuş showed members a draft bill prepared by the speaker's office. If ruling and opposition parties act sincerely and reach a joint decision, he said, he would like the work to begin "tomorrow morning," adding that the text could still be improved and discussed.

On complaints that ministries fail to answer parliamentary questions, Kurtulmuş said the speaker's office had written to all ministries six times demanding timely and substantive replies. He said the rate of motions rejected by the speaker's office had fallen to 0.82 percent in the 28th Term, so that almost every motion out of 100 was forwarded to ministries without being held up.

Kurtulmuş also asked lawmakers not to treat parliament as a place of little worth, saying the Assembly is received with deep respect at every international forum he attends. He argued that circles in Türkiye stand ready to inflate small details about the Assembly, from food served inside to a rubbish bin outside, and said the aim is a covert stance against civilian politics rather than a position against any single party. Criticism will continue, he said, but the Assembly's standing must be protected.

Commission report and the solidarity law

Kurtulmuş said the National Solidarity, Fraternity and Democracy Commission had produced major value in terms of deliberative democracy and a high-standard parliamentary practice. Both lawmakers and invited participants contributed with great effort, he said, and the Assembly had built a remarkably sincere working environment to address terrorism, the biggest problem of the Republic's first century.

He described the commission report as a whole and as a roadmap. The items in its section on resolving terrorism, and the section on raising Türkiye's democratic standards, which was accepted unanimously, are directly under the control of Turkish politics, he said, adding that he, the commission and all contributing parties would carry out the democratization steps in that section.

The adoption of the Law on Strengthening National Solidarity and Social Cohesion with 467 votes was more than a number, Kurtulmuş said, because it emerged as an outcome backed by almost every segment of society. He said objections were received with respect and contributed to Turkish democracy. He called the report a door that was opened a crack and the law that door opened wide, leading to peace, friendship, unity and a stable region free of terror where Turks, Kurds, Arabs, Persians, Sunnis, Shiites, Muslims and non-Muslims live in safety.

Three safeguards on disarmament

Kurtulmuş acknowledged that members of the public sometimes have doubts about the process in which the PKK and its offshoots lay down their weapons. He said every word of the law was carefully prepared and that three important safeguards were built into it to guarantee disarmament.

The first is the council chaired by the Vice President, whose members include cabinet ministers and heads of security bodies and which will review the process, at times file by file. The second is the verification and registration by the country's security bodies that the organization has fully laid down its arms and dissolved itself, a finding to be decided and announced by a National Security Council decision. The third is a monitoring commission to be set up in the Assembly within days, which will follow the process politically, propose work on the relevant bill when needed and coordinate with the executive.

The law puts the process under control, Kurtulmuş said. "Anyone who spoils the game will be crushed by the game they set up," he said, warning that anyone chasing political calculations would be crushed by those calculations. The process, he added, is something the whole of Türkiye's 86 million people has long awaited.

Gabar, the veteran's message and the region

Comparing the ground covered in the terror-free process to what other countries reach in eight to 10 years, Kurtulmuş said earlier attempts in Türkiye had failed because the issue was not embraced within the Assembly. Politics has now fulfilled its responsibility, he said, and the winners will be the nation and the region's peoples while the losers will be the barons of terror and war.

Recalling a visit to Gabar Mountain, which no civilian could previously enter, Kurtulmuş said citizens now travel there for festive occasions and that Türkiye extracts 85,000 barrels of oil a day at the site. He also recounted a conversation in Konya with a veteran who lost a leg to an improvised explosive device in Gabar and said no one should die in the country any more and that the process has strong public support. The coming together of state reason and the public conscience is one of the important developments, Kurtulmuş said.

He said the project would undo the results of the first Sykes-Picot a century ago and answer imperial powers that tore the region apart by dividing peoples along ethnic, sectarian and religious lines. He said he met representatives of the Yazidi community in Batman and separately with Yazidi and Syriani representatives in Sweden, and that Türkiye has the will to resolve the problems of all the region's peoples.

During this part of his speech, a brief verbal exchange took place after interjections by İYİ Party Deputy Chairpersons and lawmakers Erhan Usta and Ayyüce Türkeş Taş. Kurtulmuş later said different views would exist in the process but that the remarks of leaders who in some way speak for the terror organization have no value for Türkiye, and that what matters is the parties in parliament and the roadmap they formed by consensus.

2027 budgets approved

At the end of the discussions, the commission approved the 2027 budgets of the Grand National Assembly, the Ombudsman Institution and the Court of Accounts.

Key takeaways

• TBMM Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş said no one should seek hidden motives or political calculations in the Terror-Free Türkiye process.
• A draft bill on improving the employment rights of lawmakers' advisers was shown to members, with Kurtulmuş urging a joint ruling and opposition decision.
• The rejection rate for parliamentary questions fell to 0.82 percent in the 28th Term, and the speaker's office wrote to all ministries six times.
• Kurtulmuş listed three safeguards on disarmament: a council chaired by the Vice President, security verification announced by the National Security Council, and an Assembly monitoring commission.