DEM politician Pervin Buldan says the newly built section remains inside the same prison and provides space for working arrangements, while Ocalan’s requested peace-process role still awaits definition.
Abdullah Ocalan, a founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has moved to a newly built section within Turkey’s Imrali prison, Kurdish legislator Mithat Sancar said on 31 October 2026. Sancar announced the transfer on Kurdish television channel Medya Haber TV, as Al Jazeera said. He called for the stalled peace process to accelerate.
The announcement changes Sancar’s earlier account. On 26 August, he denied reports of a relocation, saying the delegation met Ocalan in a different hall but Ocalan still lived in his old quarters. Sancar is a Sanliurfa legislator from the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) and belongs to its delegation that regularly visits Ocalan.
On 1 November, fellow DEM politician Pervin Buldan said the new section was part of the same prison and described it as a space for arranging working conditions. She said moving there did not, by itself, define Ocalan’s status. Sancar did not give the transfer date, details of the building’s physical conditions or its working arrangements.
Ocalan has been imprisoned on Imrali, in the Sea of Marmara, since his capture in Kenya in February 1999. He is serving aggravated life imprisonment after his death sentence under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, concerning the formation of armed organizations, was commuted when Turkey abolished the death penalty.
The PKK was founded in 1978, initially seeking an independent Kurdish state before shifting its demands toward autonomy and greater rights for Turkey’s Kurds. It launched its armed campaign against the Turkish state in 1984. The conflict has killed more than 40,000 people. Turkey, the United States and the European Union designate the PKK a terrorist organization.
The in-absentia charge concerns an alleged order to attack the philosopher’s museum in 2022. Prosecutors have also sent indictments against two subordinate commanders to court.
Ocalan called on the PKK to disband and disarm in February 2025, and the group announced its dissolution that May. Turkey’s parliament adopted a law offering limited amnesty to PKK fighters in August. The PKK leadership has repeatedly demanded Ocalan’s release as part of the process.
Sancar said the peace process had been paused for two months and argued that Ocalan’s acceptance of the move required faster progress. He called for political and institutional arrangements allowing Ocalan to coordinate the process, urged the relevant peace body to visit Imrali and criticized what he described as the state’s rigid position.
Buldan said Ocalan wanted to contribute as a “Peace and Politicization Coordinator,” but that role had not yet been formally defined. She also said his requests to meet women’s organizations, journalists and academics had gone unmet for two years, with visits limited to a political delegation. Buldan called for wider access, saying political visits alone were insufficient for the process to advance.
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