Turkey Relocates Kurdish Leader Ocalan to New Island Prison Wing Amid Peace Push

Turkey has moved the country’s Kurdish militant leader to a newly built section of an island prison where he has been held since 1999, as part of ongoing efforts to end decades of conflict, a senior Kurdish official reported.

Improving prison conditions for Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has been a key demand of Kurdish groups in the push to resolve the 42-year conflict with Turkish authorities. Ocalan has been imprisoned on Imrali Island in the Marmara Sea since his capture in 1999.

Mithat Sancar, a Kurdish official and lawmaker for the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, confirmed Ocalan’s relocation during an interview with Medya Haber TV on Saturday, though he did not provide specific details about the new facility. While he did not explicitly confirm whether the new section offers better accommodations, his remarks appeared to suggest as much.

Sancar also called for the acceleration of the peace process, noting that negotiations had effectively been paused for the last two months. “Ocalan’s move to the new facility necessitates an acceleration of the peace process,” he stated.

Sancar is among several DEM Party politicians who have regularly visited Ocalan since he called on the PKK to disband and disarm in February 2025. As a co-founder of the PKK in the 1970s, Ocalan remains a highly influential figure among Kurds and is viewed as pivotal to advancing peace.

Three months after Ocalan’s call, the PKK announced it would lay down its arms and end hostilities. This development led the Turkish parliament to approve legislation in August offering a conditional pardon to thousands of PKK fighters, a bill subsequently signed into law by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The conflict with the PKK, which is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union, has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1984.

Sancar emphasized that Ocalan must play a central role in coordinating peace negotiations. “The process cannot proceed with unilateral expectations and demands,” he said, urging the Turkish government to “move away from its insistent and rigid stance.”

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