ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkey’s largest pro-Kurdish political party said Friday that their Ankara headquarters were attacked overnight.

“Our #DEMParti headquarters in #Balgat #Ankara, where many political party headquarters are located, was attacked at midnight,” Aysegul Dogan, spokesman for the People’s Equality and Democracy Party (DEM), wrote on X.

She shared photos of the damage to the building, including broken doors and windows and a broken sign.

Dogan asked Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya to identify the perpetrators.

The attack came as there are growing expectations that Turkey will resume peace talks with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to end the 40-year conflict.

The DEM party is frequently accused of having links with the PKK. The party denies the allegations but is an advocate for Kurdish rights and a political solution to the conflict.

It is not the first time that the party offices have been attacked. In May, a gunman opened fire on his office in southeastern Urfa province.

Reports of a new trend for peace began earlier this month with Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli shaking hands with DEM Party members in the legislature. Bahceli also proposed inviting jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan to address the Turkish parliament and declare the dissolution of his armed group.

In a further step, the government decided to allow Ocalan to meet his family, ending more than four years of isolation. After the meeting, Ocalan’s nephew and DEM Party MP Omer Ocalan shared a message from his uncle on X on Thursday morning that he can turn the violence into a political process.

An estimated 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict between the PKK and the Turkish state.

A short-lived peace process in 2013 granted the Kurds some rights, but talks collapsed in 2015 and the conflict spread to the Kurdistan Region and northeastern Syria (Rojava).

Hopes for peace were dealt a blow on Wednesday when a Turkish aerospace facility in Ankara’s Kahramankazan district was attacked, leaving five people dead and 22 others injured. Two attackers were “neutralized” and Ankara blamed the PKK. Turkey uses the term “neutralization” to describe opponents who have been captured, wounded or killed.

Later that day, Turkey launched strikes on suspected PKK positions in the Kurdistan Region and Syria, saying 32 “targets belonging to terrorists” had been “neutralized”. The strikes continued on Friday morning. Twelve civilians were killed, according to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The DEM party condemned the attack on the aerospace facility and called for peace.