Doğan Erbaş, a lawyer representing Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan between 1999 and 2011 and currently a member of the Justice and Human Rights Commission of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey, shared his views regarding Öcalan’s ability to realise a peaceful solution for the Middle East.

Erbaş stated that Öcalan proposes and has made suggestions regarding a peaceful resolution of the Kurdish question in Turkey as well as suggestions to address the various crises in the Middle East. Erbaş observed that Öcalan has been subjected to prison isolation conditions due to this power he embodies and so that his connections with society can be broken and his ideas can be isolated. He observed that: “Öcalan himself states that: ‘The reason they put me here is to prevent me from being a party of the solution'”.

Erbaş also stated that:”They want to destroy Öcalan’s power of thought and his capacity to propose a solution. The public saw his power in being able to contribute towards a solution during the negotiations and dialogue process that took place in Turkey between 2013 and 2015. Öcalan is kept for this reason in a small, isolated room on a prison island built for one man. Even though he is imprisoned in isolation on an island, Öcalan has kept writing and producing ideas for a solution. Öcalan proposes not only ideological and philosophical but also practical solutions. And this is what he calls the ‘Imralı Stand'”.