Turkish court renews lawyer meeting ban on PKK leader

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Turkish court extended a ban on meetings between jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan and his lawyers, Turkey’s pro-Kurdish media outlets reported on Thursday.

Mezopotamya Agency (MA) reported that a Bursa court rejected a request from Asrin Law Office, Ocalan’s legal representatives, to meet the PKK leader. The law firm discovered that a new six-month ban on lawyer-client meetings was imposed on Ocalan on November 8. The lawyers were not provided with any information regarding the reason for the measure.

An appeal against this decision was rejected by the Bursa court, leading Ocalan’s lawyers to plan a lawsuit at the country’s Constitutional Court, MA reported.

Ocalan was arrested in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1999 and has been in jail since. His lawyers and family several times have been prevented from contacting him. Last month, Ocalan's nephew, pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) lawmaker, Omer Ocalan, said in a post on X that the family met in person with the PKK leader for the first time since March 3, 2020.

The PKK leader said he was in “good health” and “sent greetings to everyone,” according to his nephew’s post

Before October’s meeting, Ocalan’s elder brother Mehmet Ocalan last had a short phone call with him in March 2021. Numerous subsequent requests by lawyers and family to meet the PKK leader have been rejected.

The new ban on meetings with Ocalan comes amid renewed hope for a peace process inside Turkey, a month after Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli proposed allowing Oclalan to address the Turkish parliament and declare the dissolution of the armed group.

Bahceli is the government ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). For years, the MHP leader has been a staunch opponent of pro-Kurdish parties in the country, including the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), for their alleged PKK affiliation. 

In 2013, the AKP government entered into peace talks with the PKK, paving the way for an unprecedented opening for Kurds in the country. Kurdish politicians were able to speak freely about their rights, something that was previously taboo. The peace talks, which were mediated by the DEM Party’s predecessor, the HDP, collapsed in 2015 and were followed by intense urban fighting in the country’s southeastern Kurdish areas.