Duran Kalkan, Executive Council member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) called on people to organise a march to İmralı Island Prison, where the PKK founding leader, Abdullah Öcalan, has been kept since 1999.
Kalkan expressed his views in a special programme by Medya Haber on the strict isolation imposed on Öcalan, the sit-in of Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) MPs in front of Turkey’s Justice Ministry organised against this isolation and the uncertainty about Öcalan’s conditions.
Kurdish MPs had launched a new sit-in in front of Turkey’s Justice Ministry to protest the strict isolation on Abdullah Öcalan on 21 December. Kalkan evaluated the Ministry as “the right address” and urged MPs to push the Ministry to remove the uncertainties.
“The Ministry is one of the institutions that disseminate the information in question. It both spreads information and prevents lawyers and the family from meeting with Öcalan,” said Kalkan.
“Thus, it is absolutely essential to increase these actions, to insist on visiting applications, to force the current government and the institutions that organise the visit to İmralı,” added Kalkan, and called on everyone to organise a march to İmralı Prison.
Although the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) visited İmralı Prison during its visit to Turkey’s migrant detention centres in September, information on whether the committee met with Öcalan has not been confirmed yet.
The PKK executive called on the CPT to ensure clear information about the situation of Öcalan.
