Jailed Kurdish militant leader's message to be shared on Thursday

By Ece Toksabay

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party will hold a press conference on Thursday to discuss talks with jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan and share an expected statement from him, a senior party official told Reuters on Wednesday.

The Justice Ministry has granted permission for a DEM delegation to visit the long-imprisoned Ocalan on Thursday, marking the third such visit since December, a ministry official said.

This move is seen as part of a broader government initiative to have Ocalan call on the PKK separatist movement to disarm, potentially ending a four-decade-old insurgency against the Turkish state.

The party later said it would hold a press conference at 1400 GMT in Istanbul, following the session with Ocalan.

While the party hopes Ocalan’s message will be delivered in video format for greater impact, government and ruling party sources have voiced opposition to any video statement, citing sensitivities over the PKK, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and European Union.

Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said on Wednesday that the party’s request for a video message from Ocalan was not possible, in line with previous government statements.

Veteran Kurdish politician Ahmet Turk has also applied to be part of the delegation, DEM Party spokeswoman Aysegul Dogan said.

Ocalan has been held in near-total isolation on the prison island of Imrali since 1999, with only rare communication with the outside world.

(Additional reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever; Editing by Daren Butler, Ros Russell and Mark Heinrich)