Turkey's Ministry of Justice has approved a request from the pro-Kurdish party DEM to visit PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan over the weekend. Öcalan has been serving a life sentence in solitary confinement on the Turkish prison island of Imrali in the Sea of Marmara since 1999.
According to Turkey's Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc, two members of parliament from DEM have been granted permission to visit the 75-year-old Öcalan in prison.
We responded positively to DEM's request for a meeting. Depending on the weather conditions, they will travel to Imrali tomorrow or on Sunday, he said to the news channel TRGT on Friday.
The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by both Turkey and the USA as well as the EU, and Öcalan is imprisoned without the possibility of parole. Despite this, the PKK founder's significance has gained increased relevance in Turkish domestic politics in recent times.
As recently as last autumn, the far-right party MHP offered Öcalan the opportunity to visit the country's parliament to "renounce terror" and dissolve the PKK. Shortly thereafter, he was given the opportunity to meet with relatives for the first time in several years, in what was described as an attempt by the Turkish government to calm down the situation in the Kurdish border regions with Syria.
