Ankara-PKK peace mediators visiting Ocalan
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Mediators of the ongoing peace talks between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Tuesday visited Imrali island to meet with the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, announced the country’s main pro-Kurdish party.
The Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) said in a statement that the delegation - which consists of both main mediators Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar and Ocalan’s lawyer - visited the island, located in Istanbul, and returned without providing details. The mediators often release a statement on the visit the following day.
Ocalan has been held in the prison since 1999. He has been granted unprecedented access to mediators, family and lawyers since he started a peace process with the state more than a year ago.
In February, Ocalan issued a historic call for his followers to lay down their arms and dissolve the group he founded in 1978. The PKK complied with both directives by May. Since then, the group — which has temporarily rebranded as the Kurdistan Freedom Movement following its dissolution — has taken additional steps to support the process, most recently withdrawing its fighters from the strategic Mount Zap, an area Turkish forces have long struggled to capture despite years of military operations.
Tuesday's visit comes over a week after a delegation from the Turkish parliamentary commission tasked with overseeing the PKK disarmament and the peace process held its first meeting with Ocalan. Earlier this year, a 51-member parliamentary commission was established to provide a legal framework for the peace talks between Ankara and the PKK, aimed at ending four decades of conflict.
Last week, a DEM Party official said Ocalan should be granted direct communication with the public and political parties in Turkey as part of the ongoing peace initiative aimed at ending decades of conflict.
Updated at 7:16 pm
The Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) said in a statement that the delegation - which consists of both main mediators Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar and Ocalan’s lawyer - visited the island, located in Istanbul, and returned without providing details. The mediators often release a statement on the visit the following day.
Ocalan has been held in the prison since 1999. He has been granted unprecedented access to mediators, family and lawyers since he started a peace process with the state more than a year ago.
In February, Ocalan issued a historic call for his followers to lay down their arms and dissolve the group he founded in 1978. The PKK complied with both directives by May. Since then, the group — which has temporarily rebranded as the Kurdistan Freedom Movement following its dissolution — has taken additional steps to support the process, most recently withdrawing its fighters from the strategic Mount Zap, an area Turkish forces have long struggled to capture despite years of military operations.
Tuesday's visit comes over a week after a delegation from the Turkish parliamentary commission tasked with overseeing the PKK disarmament and the peace process held its first meeting with Ocalan. Earlier this year, a 51-member parliamentary commission was established to provide a legal framework for the peace talks between Ankara and the PKK, aimed at ending four decades of conflict.
Last week, a DEM Party official said Ocalan should be granted direct communication with the public and political parties in Turkey as part of the ongoing peace initiative aimed at ending decades of conflict.
Updated at 7:16 pm