Turkey ends prison isolation of jailed PKK leader Ocalan

Istanbul - The Turkish government has ended the isolation of jailed Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, media reports said Tuesday. Ocalan has been held in solitary confinement on the island prison of Imrali, off the coast from the city of Bursa, since his capture in 1999.

Despite his isolation, Ocalan maintains a high level of control over the PKK and remains a popular figure in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish south-east.

According to media reports, authorities Tuesday brought five more inmates to the island prison.

The move is being seen as another part of the government's new "democratization" initiative, aimed at boosting the cultural and political rights of Turkey's Kurdish minority.

The PKK, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, has been fighting Turkish forces since 1982, in a struggle that has cost an estimated 40,000 lives.

Although the group originally sought the creation of a separate Kurdish state, it now calls for improved rights for Turkey's Kurds, believed to number between 12 to 15 million.