PKK's Ocalan to be visited on Eid

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Imprisoned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan will be allowed a visit by his family during the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, the state-run Turkish Anadolu news agency announced on Saturday.

Ocalan is serving a life sentence for “treason” on the Imrali Island, in the inland Sea of Marmara in northwestern Turkey.

The PKK leader was captured in Kenya by the US-backed Turkish Intelligence in 1999.

No one has been allowed to visit Ocalan since April 2015 when Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) delegation, relaying messages from the PKK, met with him. 

His family members have not seen him since October 2014; however, his brother Mehmet Ocalan is expected to visit him.

The last time his lawyers were granted a meeting was in 2011.

Last July, HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtas voiced concern regarding Ocalan’s welfare after claims a group of rogue Turkish soldiers wanted to kidnap or assassinate the PKK leader in his prison cell.

The incident was thought to have occured on the night of the failed July 15 coup attempt.

Ocalan’s lawyers and HDP officials have since repeatedly called on Turkish authorities to grant them permission to visit the Imrali Island.

Turkey’s Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag dismissed claims there were any problems with Ocalan’s health or his security.

Last week, a group of 50 activists, including HDP members of the Turkish Parliament, began an indefinite hunger strike in the main Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.

The strike was meant to protest the lack of information about the life and safety of Ocalan.

The PKK leader was instrumental during the 2013-2015 ceasefire and peace negotiations between Ankara and the PKK military leadership based in the mountains of the Kurdistan Region.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany

(Reporting by Ari Khalidi)