A draft 12-article framework bill obtained by The Amargi on Wednesday lays out the legal basis for the next phase of Turkey’s peace process with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), establishing a mechanism to suspend eligible criminal investigations, prosecutions and prison sentences following the group’s verified dissolution and disarmament.

Rather than granting a blanket amnesty, the proposal would allow eligible criminal investigations, prosecutions and prison sentences to be suspended for five or 10 years, depending on the severity of the offense. If beneficiaries commit no new “terrorism-related” offenses during that period, prosecutions would be dropped and suspended prison sentences deemed served.

The bill does not address several politically sensitive issues that have dominated debate over the peace process, including Abdullah Ocalan’s prison status, a possible “right to hope” mechanism, Kurdish-language rights, local government reforms or broader democratic changes sought by the Kurdish movement.

The framework law is widely viewed by both the government and the Kurdish movement as the legal foundation for the next phase of the peace process rather than its final destination. Its immediate purpose is to provide a legal mechanism for implementing the PKK’s dissolution and disarmament, while creating new institutions to oversee the process, including a high-level government coordination board and a 17-member parliamentary monitoring commission.