Crimeupdated 2h ago2 min read
Archive photo · 8 June 2025Turkey Moves Jailed PKK Founder Abdullah Öcalan To New İmralı Prison Section
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Öcalan moved to a newly built section of Imrali Island prison. Move described as part of Turkey’s efforts to advance the peace process with PKK.
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Ocalan moved on Imrali
Turkey moved jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) founder Abdullah Ocalan to a newly-built section of the island prison where he has been held for 27 years, pro-Kurdish legislators said. Mithat Sancar, a member of the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) delegation that regularly visits Ocalan, confirmed the transfer on Saturday in an interview with the Kurdish television channel Medya Haber TV. Sancar said the move “necessitates an acceleration of the (peace) process”, which he said had been paused for two months.
“Ocalan’s move to the new facility, he said, ‘necessitates an acceleration of the (peace) process.’”
Pervin Buldan, a fellow DEM politician, said on Sunday that Ocalan himself had announced the transfer but played down its significance, adding, “This new facility is part of the prison; it is not somewhere outside the prison.” The transfer kept Ocalan on Imrali island in the Sea of Marmara, where he has been held since his capture in 1999.
DEM urges speed, status
DEM Party figures linked the relocation to stalled negotiations, with Rudaw reporting that Aysegul Dogan told Rudaw's Shawkat Harki that the process had not completely stalled but that its “speed and tempo” had changed. Dogan said the process had entered a parliamentary and legal phase, and she pointed to August legislation making certain legal measures for PKK members conditional on official verification that the group had ended its activities and surrendered its weapons. Pervin Buldan argued the transfer did not change Ocalan’s status, and she told Rudaw, “This does not mean that the entire issue of his status has been resolved.”
Buldan also told Rudaw that the DEM Party and PKK needed “practical measures to build trust,” after the September 13 meeting with Ocalan. Sancar, meanwhile, said the process had been “at a standstill for the past two months” and that “Certain dates had been set, but they were not met,” according to Turkish Minute.
Peace process stakes
The move came as the PKK’s armed campaign and subsequent political steps remained central to the peace effort described by multiple sources, including the claim that the conflict has killed more than 40,000 people. Al Jazeera reported that the PKK was founded in 1978 by Ocalan and others, launched an armed campaign against the Turkish state in 1984, and was designated a “terrorist” organisation by Turkiye, the United States and the European Union. The same source said Ocalan called on the PKK to disband and disarm in February last year, and the group announced its dissolution that May.
Turkiye’s parliament adopted a law offering limited amnesty for PKK fighters in August, and the sources described the legislation as part of the push to end decades of conflict. In that context, DEM figures said the relocation was only a step, with Meral Danis Bestas telling Rudaw, “This transfer is a small step, and we hope greater steps follow.”