Abdullah Ocalan fate unresolved in Turkey PKK amnesty

Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed founder of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, remains a central unresolved figure in Turkey's latest attempt to end decades of conflict with the PKK.

Turkish lawmakers voted on Aug. 10 for a bill offering limited amnesty for some PKK fighters, the first legislative step in the current peace push. The legislation did not address what will happen to Ocalan, 77, who has been held on Imrali prison island near Istanbul since 1999.

Ocalan founded the PKK in 1978. The group began an insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984, first demanding independence and later broader autonomy in Turkey's mostly Kurdish southeast. Ankara, Washington, Brussels and many Western countries have blacklisted the PKK as a terrorist organisation.

The conflict has caused about 50,000 deaths. Ocalan, who once oversaw the PKK's armed struggle, later backed efforts to move the Kurdish issue into politics. In July 2025, as PKK leaders in northern Iraq began symbolically destroying weapons, he said he believed in “politics and social peace, not weapons.”

PKK leaders have said Ocalan's freedom is essential for the process to work. Senior PKK leader Devrim Palu told AFP in October that Ocalan “initiated this process” and that his freedom was crucial for it to advance.

Ocalan was born in southeastern Turkey in 1949 and became a left-wing activist while studying in Ankara. After years on the run, Turkish agents captured him in Kenya in 1999. He was sentenced to death, but Turkey later abolished capital punishment and he has since been held on Imrali.

Even in prison, Ocalan has remained influential. He ordered a ceasefire after his capture, later told supporters to abandon the goal of an independent Kurdish state, and took part in earlier talks with Ankara in 2013 before that process collapsed in 2015.