Two senior figures from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) urged Turkish authorities to remove what they described as “obstacles” to progress in peace talks with Ankara, one year after the group announced its dissolution.

The pair, Mustafa Karasu and Sözdar Avesta, speaking in Kurdish and Turkish on camera from an unidentified location, urged the government to “take the necessary legislative measures to ensure smooth progress,” in comments published by the pro-PKK Fırat news agency.

Recent statements made by Turkish officials claiming that the process is moving forward unhindered “do not reflect the current situation,” they argued.

According to them, the PKK has “fulfilled its part beyond expectations.”

Last year the PKK formally renounced its armed conflict against the Turkish state after four decades of violence that killed more than 40,000 people on both sides.

The two PKK leaders also referred to the fate of jailed PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan, who has led efforts to end the conflict from his cell on İmralı island where he has been held since 1999.

“We will only be able to talk about progress once the status of Leader Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] has been determined and he is granted the conditions allowing him to work freely,” they said.

They called for the 77-year-old to be granted a “clearly established legal and political status” that would allow him to participate “fully” in negotiations with the Turkish state.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s main ally, Devlet Bahçeli, from the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), also called on Tuesday for “discussions” over the fate of Öcalan.

“The process cannot proceed healthily” unless the PKK leader has a “defined role,” he said in an address to his party members in parliament.

Ankara says the PKK’s decision must be verified before broader legal and political steps are taken. The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), which has been involved in facilitating talks with Öcalan, says the government is delaying reforms despite the opening created by Öcalan’s call and the PKK’s announcement.

A parliamentary commission led by Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş approved a report in February setting out a roadmap for legal reforms linked to the process.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said recently that the approval of the report had brought the process to a more sensitive stage and that political parties’ support would help Turkey get through the next phase “without accident or trouble.”

Agence France-Presse with reporting from Turkish Minute