Turkiye to allow pro-Kurdish party to visit jailed PKK founder

DEM Party expected to hold face-to-face meeting with Abdullah Ocalan, who has been in prison for 25 years.

Turkiye will allow parliament’s pro-Kurdish party to visit the jailed founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on his island prison, setting up the first such visit in nearly a decade.

The Justice Ministry approved a request by the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) to meet Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving life in solitary confinement, a DEM spokesperson said late on Friday.

Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc confirmed the move in remarks to the TGRT news channel.

“We responded positively to DEM’s request for a meeting. Depending on the weather conditions, they will go to Imrali tomorrow [Saturday] or Sunday,” he said, referring to the prison island where Ocalan has been held for 25 years.

Friday’s decision came after DEM requested the visit last month, soon after a key ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expanded on a proposal to end the 40-year-old conflict between the state and Ocalan’s outlawed PKK.

Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party, made the call a month after suggesting that Ocalan announce an end to the rebellion in exchange for the possibility of his release.

Erdogan described Bahceli’s initial proposal as a “historic window of opportunity”. After the latest call last month, Erdogan said he was in complete agreement with Bahceli on every issue and that they were acting in harmony and coordination.

“To be frank, the picture before us does not allow us to be very hopeful,” Erdogan said in parliament. “Despite all these difficulties, we are considering what can be done with a long-range perspective that focuses not only on today but also on the future.”

Bahceli regularly condemns pro-Kurdish politicians as tools of the PKK, which they deny.

Regional changes

DEM’s predecessor party was involved in peace talks between Ankara and Ocalan a decade ago, last meeting him in April 2015.

The peace process and a ceasefire collapsed soon after, unleashing the most deadly phase of the conflict.

DEM MPs Sirri Sureyya Onder and Pervin Buldan, who both met Ocalan as part of peace talks at the time, will travel to Imrali island to meet him this weekend, the party said.

Turkiye and its Western allies designate the PKK as a “terrorist group”. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the fighting, which in the past was focused in the mainly Kurdish southeast but is now centred on northern Iraq, where the PKK is based.

Growing regional instability and changing political dynamics are seen as factors behind the bid to end the conflict with the PKK. The chances of success are unclear as Ankara has given no clues on what it may entail.

Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria this month, Ankara has repeatedly insisted that the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia, which it sees as an extension of the PKK, must disband, asserting that the group has no place in Syria’s future.

The YPG is the main component of the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

SDF commander Mazloum Abdi (also known as Mazloum Kobani) acknowledged the presence of PKK fighters in Syria for the first time last week, saying they had helped fight ISIL (ISIS) fighters and would return home if a total ceasefire was agreed upon with Turkiye, a core demand from Ankara.

Authorities in Turkiye have continued to crack down on alleged PKK activities. Last month, the government replaced five pro-Kurdish mayors in southeastern cities for suspected PKK ties, in a move that drew criticism from DEM and others.