The conflict has been ongoing since 1984 and resulted in over 40,000 mortal casualties and great economic losses for Turkey and its Kurdish majority southeastern areas as well as high damage to the general population.
They wanted to defend themselves in Kurdish language while being in court, the improvement of the detention conditions of Abdullah Öcalan, and the start of a peace process between Turkey and the PKK.
[23] On the 16 December the Chief of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) Hakan Fidan held a talk with Abdullah Öcalan.
[24] On the 28 December 2012, Erdoğan made the meeting public[24] and stated that the government was in negotiations with jailed rebel leader Öcalan.
While negotiations were going on, there were numerous events that were regarded as sabotage to derail the talks: The assassination of the PKK administrators Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Söylemez in Paris,[26] revealing Öcalan's talks with the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) publicly via the Milliyet newspaper[27] and finally, the bombings of the Justice Ministry of Turkey and Erdoğan's office at the Justice and Development Party (AKP) headquarters in Ankara.
[33] The government announced its long-awaited list of "wise men" on April 4, the members of a seven-region commission tasked with explaining the ongoing settlement process with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to the public and promoting the negotiations.
In a speech on March 23, the prime minister defined the role of the commission, saying they will be conducting a "psychological operation," indicating the wise people will act as public relations agents.
In a speech he made in Ankara on March 23, Erdoğan stated, "It is important to prepare the public for this and social perceptions should be created by the wise men."
On April 5, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met for the first time with members of the wise men commission.
[34] After five weeks of work, the Wise Persons committee gave its first report to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and shared their impressions on the level of support regarding the process.