Calls for the release of gravely ill prisoners have intensified in Turkey, as prominent human rights defenders and political figures declared such action a moral and political necessity for initiating peace.
Kurdish politician Sebahat Tuncel, forensic expert Şebnem Korur Fincancı and human rights lawyer Eren Keskin, speaking at a panel titled “The first step in building peace: release sick prisoners” in Urfa (Riha) in southeast Turkey on 17 May, criticised what they described as inhumane conditions in the country’s prison system and the political nature of the continued detention of sick prisoners.
“Prisons are not places of health; they produce illness,” said Fincancı, a former chair of the Turkish Medical Association. “We are faced with ethical violations, discrimination and an unhealthy environment that cannot be justified. Many Kurdish political detainees are held in aggravated isolation. People fall ill in these spaces, and some are afraid to even go to hospital due to the treatment they receive there.”
According to Fincancı, decisions by Turkey’s Forensic Medicine Institutes to keep sick prisoners incarcerated are often driven by political motivations. She argued that the current prison population — estimated at over 350,000 — is unsustainable, and disproportionately affects political prisoners.
Eren Keskin, co-chair of the Human Rights Association (İHD), added: “Prisons have been turned into commercial enterprises. Sick prisoners are only released when it’s too late — often at the point of no return. Why isn’t this more widely discussed? A major reason is the opposition’s double standards.”
She also criticised Turkey’s failure to uphold its international obligations, saying that torture and abuse persist both in prisons and in wider society. “The responsibility lies not just with those who commit abuse, but also with those who turn a blind eye,” she said.
Sebahat Tuncel, a prominent figure in the Kurdish-led Free Women’s Movement (TJA) and a former MP, described the prison system as being governed by the “law of the enemy”. Drawing on her own experiences in detention, she said, “In prison, the state is always right. Even when prisoners are right, the first rule still applies. [The practice of] isolation is no longer limited to İmralı — it’s spreading across the entire prison system.”
İmralı is the island prison where Abdullah Öcalan, regarded as the leader of the Kurdish movement in Turkey, has been held under strict isolation for over a quarter of a century. On 27 February, Öcalan called for a new phase of peace and democratic coexistence, a message cited numerous times during the panel.
“Releasing sick prisoners is not a political concession — it is a human duty,” said Tuncel. “Without this, we cannot honestly speak of peace. If the state ignores this call, it ignores the humanity of its own citizens.”
Tuncel further argued that structural inequalities remain entrenched. “You can be anything in this country — except Kurdish,” she said. “But despite everything, Kurds continue to insist on peace.”
The event concluded with a question and answer session, where participants voiced concern over the lack of transparency in prison health protocols and decisions made by parole boards and observation committees, which sometimes override doctors’ recommendations on security grounds.
The panellists agreed that any real peace process must begin with practical steps rooted in human dignity, starting with the release of prisoners whose lives are at risk in custody.
