Jailed Kurdish leader Ocalan receives first visit in Turkish prison in 43 months

ISTANBUL (AFP): Jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan received his first prison visit in 43 months on Wednesday, his nephew said, the same day a deadly blast rocked Ankara which Turkey said was likely carried out by Ocalan’s Kurdish organization.

Ocalan, the leader of the PKK or Kurdistan Workers’ Party – designated as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies – has been held in solitary confinement on a prison island since 1999.

“Our last face-to-face meeting with Abdullah Ocalan took place on March 3, 2020,” Omer Ocalan said, adding that the family met him again “years later on October 23, 2024.”

Five people were killed and 22 others wounded in an attack on a top Turkish defense firm near Ankara on Wednesday that the government said was “very likely” carried out by Kurdish militants.

Turkey launched strikes on Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria after the attack on the headquarters of state-run Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) some 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Ankara.

The attack came as Turkey’s political establishment appeared to be leaning towards a political, negotiated solution to the decades-long conflict with the Kurdish militants.

The PKK has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, claiming tens of thousands of lives.