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Ease imprisonment of Ocalan, PKK urges Turkey
Gulf Today
|May 21, 2025
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has said Turkey should ease prison conditions for its founder Abdullah Ocalan, declaring him the group's “chief negotiator” for any future talks after a decision to disband.
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A spokesman for the Kurdish group, blacklisted as a “terrorist” organisation by Ankara and its Western allies, said in an interview on Monday that Turkey has not yet provided guarantees for a peace process, and expressed objection to exiling PKK members.
In recent months, the PKK has made several historic decisions, starting with announcing a ceasefire and ultimately declaring on May 12 its dissolution, ending a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that cost more than 40,000 lives.
The group's moves followed an appeal by Ocalan, made in a letter from Istanbul's Imrali prison island where he has been held in solitary confinement since 1999.
This story is from the May 21, 2025 edition of Gulf Today.
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