Delegation visits Abdullah Öcalan on Imrali today

Press release from Kurdistan National Congress, 27.02.2025

The DEM Party announced that a high-level delegation will visit the imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan on the prison island of Imrali today, Thursday, February 27. Afterwards, the delegation will report on the results of the meeting at a press conference in Istanbul. The press conference is scheduled to take place in Istanbul at 5 p.m. (3 p.m.CET).

The visit is the third official meeting with Öcalan in the recent past. The delegation consists of seven people, including the DEM MPs Pervin Buldan and Sırrı Süreyya Önder, who were already involved in the talks between the Turkish state and Abdullah Öcalan between 2013 and 2015. They will be accompanied by the two co-chairs of the DEM Party, Tülay Hatimoğulları and Tuncer Bakırhan, DEM faction member Cengiz Çiçek, the deposed mayor of Mêrdîn (tr. Mardin), Ahmet Türk, and Öcalan’s lawyer Faik Özgür Erol.

The DEM party had recently pointed out that Abdullah Öcalan is expected to make a “historic call” for the resolution of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict and the democratization of Turkey. However, it remains unclear whether this statement will be made during today’s press conference. “That will only be clear after the visit to Imrali,” DEM spokeswoman Ayşegül Doğan said yesterday in Ankara.

The upcoming visit has once again sparked discussions about a political solution to the Kurdish question in Turkey. The DEM party is emphasizing its commitment to peaceful dialogue and expects Öcalan’s contribution to be heard by the public.

We are happy to answer any questions and provide further information.

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