Turkey's pro-Kurdish party to meet jailed PKK leader again Wednesday

Turkey's pro-Kurdish DEM Party said it will send a delegation to meet Abdullah Ocalan, head of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), in jail on Wednesday for a second time as part of a political effort to end a decades-long conflict.

The PKK's insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 has led to some 40,000 deaths. Ocalan, imprisoned since 1999, still holds significant influence over Kurdish politics.

Last week Devlet Bahceli, the natinalist MHP leader and President Tayyip Erdogan's main ally, urged Ocalan to announce the group's "unconditional" disbandment after his next meeting with the opposition DEM, parliament's third-biggest party.

Bahceli made the call after a rare initial meeting between DEM leaders and Ocalan at the end of last year, after which the militant leader was cited as indicating a willingness to call on the PKK to lay down arms.

DEM, long a critic of Bahceli and Erdogan, has said it remains committed to pursuing a peaceful resolution to the Kurdish issue through dialogue, but has called for a legal framework and a clear road map.

The talks fostered peace hopes in Turkey.

But the precarious situation of Kurdish forces in Syria, where president Bashar Al-Assad was ousted after 13 years of civil war, and uncertainty about Ankara's intentions have left many Kurds anxious about the path ahead.

The PKK is designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and European Union. Ocalan, captured in Kenya in 1999, is imprisoned on Imrali island in northwest Turkey.