Jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) founder Abdullah Öcalan has moved into a newly built residence in Turkey’s İmralı prison complex and begun taking a role in the group’s dissolution, journalist Nuray Babacan reported Wednesday, citing unnamed politicians following the peace process.
Öcalan has played a central role in Turkey’s latest attempt to end its decades-long conflict with the outlawed PKK. He issued an appeal in February 2025 calling on the group to disband and lay down its arms, after which the PKK announced its dissolution in May 2025.
In her column for the Nefes daily, Babacan said Öcalan had recently moved into the residence and was helping shape lists related to the dissolution through a new body she called the “Dissolution Commission.”
The commission reportedly considers information from state agencies and senior PKK figures. Babacan described it as separate from an existing presidential board and its four committees.
The government’s existing oversight structure is chaired by Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz. Its committees are tasked with legal matters, monitoring developments on the ground, social integration and coordinating disarmament.
The existence and purpose of Öcalan’s new residence have been the subject of conflicting statements. Justice Minister Akın Gürlek denied in April that a residence was being built specifically for Öcalan, describing the site as an administrative compound.
However, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, an ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and a key architect of the latest peace initiative, confirmed in September that a house had been built for Öcalan, according to journalist Nagehan Alçı’s account of their meeting.
Bahçeli told Alçı that Öcalan had declined to move there until he received a defined role in the peace process. That demand concerned his participation in the process, rather than a change to his prison sentence.
Babacan’s sources said the new commission had resolved that issue, allowing him to move into the residence. The reported move is within the prison complex on İmralı, where he has been held since 1999.
Öcalan’s lawyers press Council of Europe over ‘right to hope’
Separately, Öcalan’s lawyers have urged the Council of Europe to press Turkey to implement a 2014 European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruling requiring a mechanism to review his life sentence and allow for possible release.
The Asrın Law Office, which represents Öcalan, submitted a communication to the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers saying Turkey had failed for more than 12 years to implement the judgment, the Mezopotamya news agency (MA) reported Wednesday.
In the 2014 Öcalan No. 2 case, the ECtHR found that his life sentence without any possibility of conditional release violated the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment.
The principle, commonly called the “right to hope,” requires a realistic prospect of release and a mechanism to review whether continued imprisonment remains justified. It does not guarantee release.
Öcalan’s lawyers said Turkey has failed to introduce such a review mechanism despite calls from the Committee of Ministers, which supervises the implementation of ECtHR judgments.
They argued that legislation adopted in August to support the PKK peace process had not addressed that problem.
The Law on Strengthening National Solidarity and Social Integration, passed by parliament on August 10, took effect on August 18. It allows some PKK-related prosecutions and prison sentences to be suspended, but only after Turkish security agencies verify that the group and its affiliates have ended their activities and surrendered their weapons and the National Security Council confirms that finding.
The lawyers said the law provides no general review mechanism for aggravated life sentences. It also excludes life and aggravated life sentences for offenses committed before June 1, 2005, preventing Öcalan from benefiting, they said.
They called on the committee to continue examining the case under its enhanced supervision procedure and press Turkey to take legislative action.
The latest peace initiative began in October 2024, when Bahçeli unexpectedly called on Öcalan to urge the PKK to lay down its arms.
A group of PKK members burned their weapons at a symbolic ceremony in northern Iraq in July 2025. The organization later announced the withdrawal of its forces from Turkey.
The PKK, designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies, began its armed campaign against the Turkish state in 1984. The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
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