Is Öcalan Key to Kurdish Negotiations with Turkey?

Hundreds of Kurdish political prisoners have been on hunger strike in Turkey for 67 days. They demanded an end to a founding member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Abdullah Öcalan's isolation, and to allow the use of the Kurdish language in public spaces without discrimination. None of these demands have been met, but surprisingly a statement from Öcalan has been made, where he calls for an end to hunger strikes according to his brother Mehmet Öcalan.