Imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan and three other inmates held in Turkey’s high-security İmralı F-Type Prison were permitted family visits today for the first time since 2021, marking an end to many months of severe isolation.
The visits, granted ahead of the Islamic holiday of the Feast of Ramadan (Eid al-Fitr), were made by close relatives. Öcalan was visited by his brother Mehmet Öcalan, and his nephew and pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party MP Ömer Öcalan. The three other inmates—Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım, and Veysi Aktaş—also received visits from immediate family members.
This development is seen as highly significant by legal representatives and observers, as it follows a period of prolonged isolation and increasing international scrutiny. Öcalan has only been allowed seven family visits since 2014, with the most recent having taken place on 23 October, following a 44-month complete communication ban.
Konar and Aktaş, both transferred to İmralı in 2015, have had only four family visits in total. Yıldırım has been granted just three. None of these three inmates have ever been permitted a legal visit. Öcalan himself has only met his lawyers five times over the past 14 years, with the last such meeting occurring in August 2019.
Asrın Law Office, which represents Öcalan and the other inmates, published a quarterly report on 28 March detailing 52 unanswered applications for both family and legal visits. The firm also applied to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), calling for an urgent inspection of the prison.
The visits also coincide with a broader political backdrop. Between December 2024 and February 2025, a DEM Party delegation visited İmralı three times, initiating discussions around a peaceful and democratic resolution to the Kurdish issue. During the third visit, Öcalan and the other inmates issued a joint call for “Peace and a Democratic Society”.
The granting of today’s visit is being interpreted by some observers as a cautious opening within Turkey’s tightly controlled prison system—potentially signalling new momentum in political negotiations.
