Turkey moves PKK leader Ocalan to new Imrali prison section

Turkey has moved Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), to a newly built section of the island prison where he has been held since 1999, a senior Kurdish politician said, in a step tied to efforts to end a 42-year conflict.

Mithat Sancar, a lawmaker for the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, confirmed the relocation in an interview with Medya Haber TV on Saturday, CNA reported. He gave no further details and did not confirm that the new section has better conditions, though his remarks appeared to indicate that.

Ocalan has been held on Imrali, an island in the Marmara Sea, the waterway linking the Black Sea to the Aegean, since his capture in 1999. He co-founded the PKK in the 1970s.

Improving Ocalan's prison conditions has been a central Kurdish demand in talks aimed at ending the fighting. Sancar is among a group of DEM Party politicians who have visited him regularly since the PKK leader called on the group to disband and disarm in February 2025.

Three months later the PKK said it would lay down its arms and end hostilities. In August, the Turkish parliament approved legislation offering a conditional pardon to thousands of PKK fighters, which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed into law.

Sancar said the process had been on "a pause" for the past two months and that Ocalan's move to the new facility "necessitates an acceleration of the (peace) process." He said Ocalan, who remains influential among Kurds, must be part of coordinating the negotiations.

"The process cannot proceed with unilateral expectations and demands," Sancar said, adding that the government "needs to move away from its insistent and rigid stance."

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since 1984, according to CNA. Turkey, the United States and the European Union designate the PKK a terrorist organisation.