ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Mediators of the ongoing peace talks between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Tuesday visited Imrali island to meet with the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, announced the country’s main pro-Kurdish party.
The Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) said in a statement that the delegation - which consists of both main mediators Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar and Ocalan’s lawyer - visited the island, located in Istanbul, and returned without providing details. The mediators often release a statement on the visit the following day.
Ocalan has been held in the prison since 1999. He has been granted unprecedented access to mediators, family and lawyers since he started a peace process with the state more than a year ago.
In February, Ocalan issued a historic call for his followers to lay down their arms and dissolve the group he founded in 1978. The PKK complied with both directives by May.