Speaking to Mesomotamia News Agency, Ayşe Acar Başaran, the Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP’s) MP for Batman in Turkey said: “The system in İmralı is political, so the struggle against it should be political”.
The isolation imposed upon the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan has continued to intensify over the past twenty one years.
A campaign called “Build the union, break the isolation, gain freedom” was launched on 2 October in Turkey by the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), the Free Women’s Movement (TJA), the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
Sharing her evaluations of the isolation system in İmralı, Başaran said: “The regime in İmralı cannot be defined within the terms of national or international law. The Turkish state is willing to impose the system in İmralı to all the prisons in the country. So, if we evaluate İmralı only on legal grounds, we would be mistaken. This system is political and the struggle against it should be political”.
Referring to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment’s (CPT’s) role and mission in breaking the isolation conditions of Abdullah Öcalan, Başaran noted that: “The CPT’s attitude towards the isolation in İmralı is ambiguous. The report issued by the CPT after their visit on İmralı Island in 2019 is significant, yet it is not enough. The CPT should check closely if their suggestions to Turkey were complied with”.
According to Başaran, the isolation in İmralı finds its reflections in the social sphere in Turkey and throughout the region in general: “Within the country, there are numerous acts of detention, imprisonment, torture and violations of human rights, whilst an expansionist policy is followed across the borders. After the occupation of Afrin (Êfrîn), Tel Abyad (Grê Sipî) and Ras-al-Ayn (Serêkaniye), now we see the attacks are aimed at southern Kurdistan. The purpose of this is to attack the Democratic Nation Paradigm proposed by Mr. Öcalan against the mentality of the nation state”.
“We see support from the four parts of Kurdistan and from Europe, because we are all affected by the isolation”, Başaran noted and he appealed to the international community to give support for the absolute freedom for Mr. Öcalan. “This is the only solution”, he observed, adding: “Everybody should raise their voice from wherever they are against isolation. Collective life in the Middle East is under isolation”.
