Kurdish PKK leader allowed to meet lawyers
A demonstrator holds a picture of jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan during a rally in Diyarbakir, Turkey, February 27, 2025. PHOTO:REUTERS
The jailed founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party, Abdullah Ocalan, has been allowed to meet his lawyers for the first time in six years, his legal team said on Wednesday.
"On September 15, 2025, we visited Mr Ocalan and our other clients who are being held in Imrali prison after a six-year hiatus," the Asrin Hukuk law firm wrote on X.
According to his lawyers, the PKK leader said "the process of peace and democratic society has reached the stage of a legal solution" and expressed his wish to see a legal framework in Turkey for disarmament of the group.
A delegation led by the pro-Kurdish DEM party — the third-largest force in the Turkish parliament — has visited Ocalan several times since December last year as part of the peace process between Ankara and the PKK.
But Ocalan's lawyers have not been able to secure authorisation to see him since 2019.