The President of the European Left Party, Dr Walter Baier, has renewed his call to visit Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), urging the Turkish government to open channels for peace negotiations.
Speaking on behalf of his party, that he had formally requested permission from the Turkish authorities to meet with Öcalan, whose prolonged isolation has drawn mounting international concern. “We are concerned about his state of health,” he said. “Abdullah Öcalan is a key person in any peace process in Turkey and in the wider Middle East.”
Baier’s remarks are part of a growing campaign titled “Freedom for Öcalan, a Political Solution to the Kurdish Question”, supported by lawmakers, legal scholars, artists and civil society groups across Europe. Baier described Öcalan’s peace proposals as “worth being made known to the Turkish people and to the peoples of the world,” and called for an end to his solitary confinement, which has continued for 26 years on İmralı Island.
“We want to listen to Mr Öcalan’s proposals,” he said. “Now is the time for peace; it’s time for negotiating; it’s time for listening.”
His statement follows a similar appeal by Martin Schirdewan, Co-Chair of the Left Group in the European Parliament, who declared: “I want to visit Mr Abdullah Öcalan”, aligning himself with the campaign’s most politically assertive phase. Schirdewan highlighted Öcalan’s February 2025 declaration that the PKK would dissolve if Turkey initiated serious negotiations — a statement seen by many as a major development in the decades-long Kurdish conflict.
Schirdewan further stressed that “all obstacles that might prevent Abdullah Öcalan from presenting his ideas” must be removed.
The campaign’s advocates compare Öcalan’s potential role in peace-building to that of Nelson Mandela in post-apartheid South Africa, arguing that his release could unlock a democratic transition in Turkey and help end the cycle of violence and displacement in Kurdish-majority regions.
Baier concluded his message with a pledge: “We will continue requesting to see Abdullah Öcalan until finally he will be released.”
