Kurdish MP Gülüstan Kılıç Koçyiğit linked what she called the “Court of Cassation coup” in the Turkish judiciary to the Kurdish issue and the inhumane treatment of Kurdish political prisoners during her address to the Turkish Parliament’s General Assembly on Friday.
Members of Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party have connected the ongoing judicial crisis to the treatment of Kurdish political prisoners, including PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan.#HEDEP | #ConstitutionalCrisis | #Turkeyhttps://t.co/hYlTfgdMYu pic.twitter.com/WautruieSU
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Koçyiğit, a Peoples’ Democracy and Equality Party (HEDEP) MP from Kars (Qers), highlighted the ongoing isolation and torture of Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), despite national and international laws and norms.
“Your continual and systematic violation of the law has now emerged as a crisis,” Koçyiğit stated, addressing the government seats. She argued that “the state and regime crisis” is rooted in the Kurdish issue and underscored the absence of news from Öcalan and other political prisoners for 33 months, urging for a democratic resolution to the Kurdish issue, normalisation of the country, and adherence to a constitutional state order.
Koçyiğit called for lifting the isolation on Öcalan to “revive the hope for peace that millions are waiting for”.
Sezai Temelli, another HEDEP MP, raised concerns about Öcalan’s health condition in İmralı prison and the plight of sick inmates, criticising the government’s lack of information and care. “There are 1,400 sick prisoners in jails, many of them, nearly 400, are on the verge of death. They are citizens too,” Temelli highlighted, emphasising the constitutional right to health and calling for the release of these prisoners. He stressed the humanitarian nature of the issue, urging the Health Ministry and doctors to take more initiative in this matter.
