Istanbul: Turkiye’s leading pro-Kurd party said it was expecting a “historic declaration” Thursday from the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, amid efforts to end a decades-long conflict with Ankara.
The pro-Kurdish DEM party will send a delegation Thursday to meet Ocalan at his prison on an island off Istanbul, it said in a statement.
The visit, the third in the past few months, comes as Ankara seeks to reset ties with the PKK, which has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
“If everything goes smoothly, tomorrow, we expect Ocalan to make a historic declaration,” said DEM, whose visit to the jailed PKK leader was approved by the justice ministry on Wednesday.
It said there would be a statement to the press following the visit, at about 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT).
The seven-person delegation, which includes Ocalan’s lawyer, Faik Ozgur Erol, would like the PKK leader to make his expected peace appeal in a video message instead of by writing, but the justice ministry has not yet agreed, Turkish media reported.
Ocalan, 75, has been serving life without parole on Imrali prison island since his 1999 arrest in Kenya.
But starting in late December, he has been twice visited by two DEM lawmakers who then briefed the parliamentary parties on the content of their talks.
The dialogue with Ocalan is an initiative of ultra-nationalist political leader Devlet Bahceli, a close ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and has led to growing anticipation that Ocalan will soon issue a public call to his fighters to lay down their arms, in exchange for concessions for the country’s Kurdish minority.
PKK leaders, who are mostly based in the mountains of northern Iraq, could then relay Ocalan’s message, Turkish media said.
But the extent of Ocalan’s appeal is uncertain.
Thursday’s delegation includes DEM co-chairs Tulay Hatimogullari and Tuncer Bakirhan, and veteran Kurdish politician Ahmet Turk, 82, who has a long history of involvement in efforts to resolve the Kurdish issue.
Deputy speaker Sirri Sureyya Onder and lawmaker Pervin Buldan, who were both part of the earlier delegations, will also go, as will another DEM lawmaker.
The conflict between PKK rebels and the Turkish state, which erupted in 1984, has claimed more than 40,000 lives.
A previous round of peace talks collapsed in a storm of violence in 2015, after which the Turkish government cut off all contact.
Turkiye’s pro-Kurd party teases ‘historic’ news from PKK leader
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Turkiye’s pro-Kurd party teases ‘historic’ news from PKK leader
- Ocalan, 75, has been serving life without parole on Imrali prison island since his 1999 arrest in Kenya
Libya brings in Western traders in blow to Russian fuel flows
- The tenders will further reduce Russian product imports into Libya
- Russian fuel exports to Libya have fallen to around 5,000 bpd in 2026 from 56,000 bpd in 2024–2025
LONDON: Global oil firms and traders including Vitol, Trafigura and TotalEnergies have won tenders to supply Libya with gasoline and diesel as the country grants large Western players wider access and reduces imports of Russian fuel, three trading sources told Reuters.
Libya is in the process of overhauling its oil sector 15 years after the fall of leader Muammar Qaddafi and years of civil wars.
The country produces some 1.4 million barrels a day of crude but lacks the infrastructure to refine it, leaving it reliant on fuel imports.
After issuing upstream licensing rounds for the first time in 20 years in an effort to grow crude output to 2 million bpd, Africa’s second-largest oil producer is now changing how it sells its oil and buys the fuel it requires.
Rather than swapping fuel imports for crude exports, it has instead awarded tenders to cover its fuel needs.
In the tenders in recent weeks, which have not previously been reported, Vitol won the rights to supply 5-10 gasoline cargoes a month and some diesel volumes, three traders familiar with the results said.
Trafigura and TotalEnergies also won the right to supply fuel, two of the three traders said. Reuters could not establish the exact volumes.
Vitol, Trafigura, and TotalEnergies declined to comment. Libya’s state-owned National Oil Corporation did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the tenders.
RUSSIAN IMPORTS DROPPING
The tenders will further reduce Russian product imports into Libya as Western firms source their volumes from refineries in the Mediterranean.
Russian fuel exports to Libya have fallen to around 5,000 bpd in 2026 from 56,000 bpd in 2024–2025, when it was the dominant supplier, according to live data from global analytics firm Kpler.
Italy has become Libya’s top fuel supplier this year with 59,000 bpd, mainly from the ISAB and Sarroch refineries run by Trafigura and Vitol, the Kpler data showed.
Moscow has relied heavily on Africa, Asia and South America for fuel sales after its refined products were banned from the West under sanctions linked to the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin has also seen its oil exports to India and Turkiye fall under US pressure, pushing more oil toward China.
Overall fuel exports into Libya from all sources have averaged around 186,000 bpd since the start of 2024.
FIRMS ALSO GAIN ACCESS TO CRUDE EXPORTS
Libya will also change the way it handles crude exports, the sources said.
Swiss-based trading firm BGN, previously a key exporter, will see crude liftings fall sharply, all three traders said, as big Western players will be allocated export rights.
Small Swiss-based trader Transmed Trading also picked up several crude cargoes in January and will keep lifting volumes in coming months, two of the three sources said.
Transmed and BGN did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Libya also signed a 25-year oil-development deal with TotalEnergies and ConocoPhillips in January, involving more than $20 billion in foreign-financed investment.
