Turkish authorities have moved jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan to a newly built part of an island prison where he has been incarcerated since 1999, a senior Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) official said on Oct. 31.

Axar.az informs, citing Hurriyet Daily, Ocalan has been imprisoned in a penitentiary on the island of Imrali in the Marmara Sea — which links the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea — since he was captured in 1999.

DEM Party’s Mithat Sancar confirmed Ocalan’s relocation in an interview with Medya Haber TV, without providing further details.

He did not confirm that the newly built section of the prison has better accommodations.

Sancar also called for what the government calls the “terror-free Turkiye” initiative to be sped up and said it had been on “a pause” for the last two months.

Öcalan’s move to the new facility, he said, “necessitates an acceleration of the [peace] process.”

Sancar is among a group of DEM Party politicians who have been regularly visiting Ocalan since he called on PKK to disband and disarm in February 2025.