ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkish lawmakers overseeing the disarmament of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militant group decided on Friday to pay their first visit to its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan, a parliamentary statement said.
The move, whose timing is not yet known, comes after a surprise call for such a visit from President Tayyip Erdogan's ultra-nationalist ally Devlet Bahceli. For his part, Erdogan has indicated he may be open to having Ocalan address lawmakers.
In a major breakthrough last May, the PKK - designated a terrorist organisation by the United States, European Union and Turkey - announced it would disarm and disband after a call to end its armed struggle from Ocalan.
In July, the PKK symbolically burned weapons and last month announced it was withdrawing fighters from Turkey as part of the disarmament process. It called on Ankara to take steps to let its members participate in "democratic politics".
In a statement after a session on Friday, parliament said the lawmakers' commission overseeing the disarmament process had voted with a three-fifths majority to carry out the visit to Ocalan in his island prison.
It did not say when the visit would happen but that parties taking part should submit names of participants by Saturday.
The pro-Kurdish DEM Party, which has played a key role in facilitating PKK disarmament, said the visit would be a "historic step" in support of lasting peace.
“There is a leader (Ocalan) who, with a single call, has made his organisation lay down arms. It is not possible for this process to progress and deepen without listening to Ocalan,” DEM lawmaker Gulistan Kocyigit said during commission debates.
The nationalist MHP party, one of Erdogan's allies, said Ocalan has been the primary interlocutor in the phased process so the parliamentary commission needed direct contact with him.
Reuters has reported that Turkey is preparing a law to let thousands of PKK fighters and civilians return home from hideouts in northern Iraq under the negotiations, but the terms of reconciliation have been sensitive.
Ankara has been wary of offering a wide amnesty for what it considers the past crimes of a terrorist organisation.
Ocalan has been held in near-total isolation on Imrali island since his arrest in 1999, with only rare communication with the outside world. But DEM lawmakers have visited him there regularly as part of the disarmament process.
The PKK's four-decade-long insurgency – originally aimed at creating an independent state in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast – has killed more than 40,000 people, imposed a heavy economic burden and caused deep social and political divisions.
(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever; writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu; editing by Mark Heinrich)
