ISTANBUL (AP) — Sirri Sureyya Onder, a key figure in Turkey’s latest effort to end the four-decade Kurdish conflict, died Saturday. He was 62.
Onder died of multiple organ failure 18 days after he was hospitalized following a heart attack, the Florence Nightingale Hospital in Istanbul’s Sisli district said in a statement reported by Anadolu news agency.
Onder was a member of parliament for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM Party, and was one of several politicians to visit jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party leader Abdullah Ocalan in a bid to find a path to peace.
Onder and fellow DEM Party lawmaker Pervin Buldan met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month as they sought to build a framework to end fighting that has caused tens of thousands of deaths.
The political push for peace was given added impetus in February, when Ocalan called for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party to disband. The group, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and most Western states, announced a ceasefire days later.
Erdogan at the time described developments as an “opportunity to take a historic step toward tearing down the wall of terror” between Turks and Kurds.
“We offer our condolences to the people of Turkey, his family and loved ones,” the DEM Party said in a statement. “It is a requirement of loyalty to his memory to achieve success in the struggle for peace that he waged at the expense of his life.”
Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmus described Onder as “a valuable person who earned everyone’s respect with his political stance, kindness and modest personality.”
Onder, a former film actor and director, also served as deputy parliament speaker, where his calm demeanor and sense of humor marked him out in Turkey’s often highly charged politics.
Although not an ethnic Kurd, his political life was spent serving pro-Kurdish parties, first entering parliament in 2011.
He spent spells in prison, including a seven-year stint as a young man for protesting a 1980 military coup. He was jailed again in 2018 over a speech he gave five years earlier.
Onder was part of a delegation to take part in a previous effort to end the Kurdish conflict between 2013 and 2015.
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