Parliament Deputy Speaker Pervin Buldan (R) and Şanlıurfa lawmaker Mithat Sancar from the DEM Party’s İmralı delegation. (DHA Photo)
Authorities have moved jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan to a newly built part of an island prison where he has been incarcerated since 1999, a senior Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) official said on Oct. 31.
Öcalan has been imprisoned in a penitentiary on the island of İmralı in the Marmara Sea — which links the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea — since he was captured in 1999.
DEM Party’s Mithat Sancar confirmed Öcalan’s relocation in an interview with Medya Haber TV, without providing further details.
He did not confirm that the newly built section of the prison has better accommodations.
Sancar also called for what the government calls the “terror-free Türkiye” initiative to be sped up and said it had been on “a pause” for the last two months.
Öcalan’s move to the new facility, he said, “necessitates an acceleration of the [peace] process.”
Sancar is among a group of DEM Party politicians who have been regularly visiting Öcalan since he called on PKK to disband and disarm in February 2025.
Three months later, PKK announced it would lay down its arms and end hostilities. That prompted the Turkish parliament to approve legislation in August offering a conditional pardon to some PKK members, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan subsequently signed into law.
Improving prison conditions for Öcalan has been a key Kurdish demand in the push to end the 42-year conflict between the terror group and Turkish authorities.
