ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey has decided to allow parliament’s pro-Kurdish party to hold talks with militant leader Abdullah Ocalan on his island prison, the pro-government Sabah newspaper reported on Thursday, setting up the first such visit in nearly a decade.
The DEM Party delegation is expected to go to the prison on Imrali island on Thursday or Friday, Sabah said on its website, without specifying its source.
The decision comes after a key ally of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan proposed the move as part of a bid to end the 40-year-old conflict between the state and Ocalan’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party militant group, known as the PKK.
(Reporting by Daren Butler; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)
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