ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan has called on Ankara to integrate Kurdish rights into Turkish state law, reiterating support for the people’s rights to freely express their identity, his lawyers reported on Friday.

Ocalan’s lawyers from the Asrin law firm visited the imprisoned leader on October 13 at the Imrali prison located on Imrali Island, where he has been kept for more than two and a half decades.

According to a statement released by the firm on Friday, Ocalan stressed that “Kurds as a whole must be included within the law… this is what true peace is,” building on his call for the disarmament of the PKK in February which kickstarted the peace process with the Turkish state.

In February, Ocalan called on the PKK to dissolve and shift their struggle against the Turkish state from an armed approach to a political one, urging democratic means to secure rights for the Kurdish population in Turkey.

“Until today, Kurdish rights have been ignored and kept outside the law, but today a democratic integration law needs to be built,” the leader added.

The PKK leader argued that people have the right to express their nationality free of fear, same as with personal beliefs.

“Just as beliefs and sects have the necessity to express themselves freely, everyone also has the right to express their nationality and live freely,” he said.

Kurdish politicians, armed groups, and activists involved in the peace process have expressed concern on numerous occasions over Turkey’s failure to take necessary steps to develop a political framework to proceed with the peace process, also slamming the inflammatory language used by pro-government media in addressing the matter.

In a meeting with the Imrali delegation from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) in early October, Ocalan himself voiced concern over the media’s language, asserting that while he commends the “non-conflict” taking place in the region, legal steps must be taken to ensure the process’ success.

The delegation, lawyers and other entities have made several visits to the island since the announcement of the disarmament deal, with DEM party calling for active participation and consultation of the PKK leader throughout the process, and his eventual release.

Earlier in October, Devlet Bahceli, the leader of Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), urged the Turkish parliament to hold direct talks with Ocalan to call on Kurdish forces in northeast Syria (Rojava) to lay down arms.

Bahceli was the first to launch the peace initiative in October last year by urging the parliament to allow Ocalan to address the parliament and announce the group’s dissolution.

The PKK announced its historic decision to disband following its 12th Congress in early May, in response to Ocalan's call for disarmament, ending a four-decade armed campaign against the Turkish state.

Ocalan has been serving a life sentence at Imrali prison, a small but high-security facility on Imrali Island in the Sea of Marmara, since February 1999.