Ankara lifted a ban on lawyer visits to imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, the justice minister said Thursday.

"The ruling that prevents meetings has been lifted and the opportunity to meet with him has been allowed," Abdulhamit Gül told reporters in Ankara.

Öcalan met with his lawyers at the beginning of the month for the first time since 2011.

Turkey captured Öcalan in February 1999 and imprisoned him on the heavily fortified island of İmralı in the Sea of Marmara where he has been kept for 20 years.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU, has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people, including women and children.