The European Union should help get peace talks restarted between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and potentially become an observer in the negotiations, Kurdish leader Salahattin Demirtas said Thursday during a visit to Brussels.



"The EU should send a clear message that the PKK and Turkey should again hold talks ... and also that a third-party observer should be at these talks," Demirtas told dpa in an interview, speaking through a translator.



"I am not saying that this necessarily has to be the EU, but it can organize a third party. It could also be another organization that plays an observer role," he added. "These peace talks have to be open. The public should know what is discussed."



But the Turkish government has opposed the involvement of a third party in the negotiations, considering them a domestic matter.



The peace process, which had faced serious hurdles already earlier this year, collapsed last month as violence shattered a ceasefire that the PKK declared in 2013.



The Turkish military has been carrying out airstrikes against PKK bases in the mostly Kurdish southeast and in northern Iraq, while the Kurdish militants have been attacking the police and army inside Turkey.



Demirtas is the co-chair of the mainstream pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, more commonly known as HDP, which was elected to the Turkish parliament for the first time in June. He has pushed for a ceasefire to be reimplemented and the peace talks to resume.



"We have hope, but we have to work more," he said, pledging to continue organizing peace rallies. "The situation could get better in the coming days or weeks."



Turkey currently has an interim government following elections in June. With no clear coalition emerging, there is speculation the country could head to fresh polls before the end of the year.



Demirtas said that Turkey is moving towards new elections and that a solution will likely only materialize after that, while expressing hope that a ceasefire and a resumption of negotiations could still come before.



His party does not fear a new round of voting, the Kurdish leader said, expressing confidence that it could surpass its previous result of 13 per cent.



"The AKP wants this war to damage us, but the population knows and sees that we are not responsible," Demirtas said, referring to the ruling Justice and Development Party.



Demirtas' HDP prevented the AKP, the party President Recep Tayyip Erdogan founded, from getting an absolute majority in parliament and enacting reforms to empower the presidency. There are growing concerns about Erdogan's authoritarian style of ruling Turkey.



Demirtas accused the government of having launched the attacks against the PKK as part of its bid to hold new elections, but also in an effort to undermine the "successes" that Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units or YPG had achieved in northern Syria.



The fighters have been heavily relied on as part of an international campaign against the Islamic State extremist group.



Demirtas denied that he was in Brussels to hold direct talks with the PKK, which is on the EU's list of terrorist organizations.



But he said he did plan to meet in the Belgian capital with Remzi Kartal and Zubeyir Aydar, both of which are affiliated with the PKK. His aim is to better "understand the situation," Demirtas said.



A meeting with a top official in the office of EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini is also planned on Friday, he added.



Demirtas faces pressure of his own from Ankara. A criminal investigation has been opened against him, amid accusations that he sparked violent riots in October.



"In the last 13 years, they have opened more than 600 proceedings against me," he said. "I am not afraid anymore since a long time."

By Alexandra Mayer-Hohdahl