PKK leader meets family in rare prison visit during Eid

ISTANBUL

PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan met with his family and associates on a prison island off Istanbul as part of an Eid al-Fitr visit, the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) announced on March 31.

Öcalan was joined by his brother Mehmet Öcalan and nephew Ömer Öcalan, along with PKK convicts Hamili Yıldırım, Ömer Hayri Konar and Veysi Aktaş. The meeting also included the brothers of the three convicts, according to the party’s statement.

The visit marks the latest in a series of engagements with Öcalan, who received his first prison visit in 43 months on Oct. 23 last year from Ömer Öcalan. A DEM Party delegation later visited him three times in succession.

Party officials on Feb. 27 read a televised statement conveying Öcalan’s message urging PKK to disarm and dissolve. The move came after Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli invited him to renounce terrorism in parliament, an appeal later endorsed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a “historic window of opportunity.”

PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union.

Öcalan has been held in solitary confinement since his capture in 1999. Meanwhile, the MHP and the DEM Party exchanged Eid visits for the first time on March 31. The MHP had previously avoided Eid meetings with the pro-Kurdish party or its predecessors.

This year also marked the first time in a decade that the DEM Party, or its predecessor, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), exchanged Eid greetings with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Their last such meeting took place in the eastern city of Diyarbakır in 2015.