The Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) İmralı Delegation, consisting of Van MP Pervin Buldan and Faik Özgür Erol, a lawyer of Asrin Law Office, met with Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan at İmralı F Type High Security Closed Prison on Monday.

The delegation left Istanbul for İmralı Island before noon and has returned after a meeting with Abdullah Öcalan in the afternoon. It is not known whether the delegation met with the other prisoners, Ömer Hayri Konar, Veysi Aktaş and Hamili Yıldırım. 

İmralı meetings

In addition to Abdullah Öcalan, Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş are also held in İmralı F Type High Security Closed Prison. Abdullah Öcalan and the other three prisoners have been prevented from family and lawyer visits for many years. 

On October 23, 2024, after 44 months of absolute incommunicado, Abdullah Öcalan met with his nephew, DEM Party Urfa MP Ömer Öcalan, as part of a family visit.

After this meeting, the DEM Party was finally granted access to İmralı. A delegation of the party went to İmralı and held talks with the Kurdish leader on December 28, 2024, January 22 and February 27, 2025.

Sırrı Süreyya Önder and Pervin Buldan took part in the first two meetings. The third meeting was attended by Pervin Buldan and Sırrı Süreyya Önder, as well as DEM Party Co-Chairs Tülay Hatimoğulları and Tuncer Bakırhan, Asrin Law Office lawyers Cengiz Çiçek and Faik Özgür Erol, and Ahmet Türk, the ousted co-mayor of Mardin. Prisoners Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş also attended the meeting.

During the meeting on February 27, Abdullah Öcalan made a “Call for Peace and Democratic Society” together with his fellow prisoners. The call was made public by the DEM Party İmralı Delegation during a press conference in Istanbul on the same day.

Abdullah Öcalan and fellow prisoners were visited by their relatives on March 31 on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr. Abdullah Öcalan's nephew Ömer Öcalan and his brother Mehmet Öcalan, Ömer Hayri Konar's brother Ali Konar, Hamili Yıldırım's brother Polat Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş's sister Sabiha Aslan attended the meeting.

Sırrı Süreyya Önder under treatment

DEM Party İmralı delegation members Sırrı Süreyya Önder and Pervin Buldan met with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on April 10.

After this meeting, members of the delegation were expected to go to İmralı once again, but Sırrı Süreyya Önder suffered a heart attack on April 15 due to an enlarged aortic artery. Önder is currently being treated in the intensive care unit of Florence Nightingale Hospital in Istanbul and remains in highly critical condition.