state, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the AKP carried on with the peace process. In October 2009, thirty-four PKK militants entered Turkey on the request of Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the PKK. They surrendered to the Turkish authorities as a sign for the PKK support of the Government plans for greater Kurdish rights. The group was welcomed by a crowd of PKK supporters and several DTP politicians. The DTP supported an amnesty for the PKK militants and Ahmet Türk also reckoned that the PKK was in favor of peace and not war. The Turkish government was not pleased with the celebrated welcome, the PKK militants received and detained over 400 high ranking DTP politicians. Following a deadly attack on Turkish soldiers by PKK militants on the 7 December 2009, the peace process was over. International outreach The party maintained an office in Brussels, Belgium, to engage into negotiations with politicians in the European Union. October 2007 congress In October 2007, the DTP organized a Democratic Society Congress during which several reforms for more political and cultural rights within a so-called Democratic Autonomy were announced. The party demanded more liberties for the expression of non-Turkish languages, especially the Kurdish language. The party wanted a more decentralized style of government and supported the implementation of an administrative structure adapted to the local population. The aim was the implementation of a government in which allowed the cultural differences of the regions to emerge. Besides, the country should be divided into several autonomous regions and the decision making process be based on a local parliamentary system. PKK connections and disbanding Connection with the PKK Since its inception, the party and its leaders have faced legal problems with the Turkish government since some critics suspect the party of having ties to the PKK. It was also criticized by observers for not distancing itself from PKK's armed actions to confirm its refutations of its claimed links with the PKK. A report from June 2007 by the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) stated that "It is an obvious secret that DTP is connected to PKK in a way and PKK is a terrorist group." A delegation consisting of the DTP MP's Fatma Kurtalan, Osman Özçelik and Aysel Tuğluk traveled to Northern Iraq to mediate the release of 8 arrested Turkish soldiers by the PKK in 2007. This visit sparked outrage in Turkey