An international delegation, including parliamentarians, has arrived in Istanbul to address the absolute isolation imposed on Abdullah Öcalan, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader subjected to absolute incommunicado detention in Turkey’s Imrali Island Prison.
The representatives, from various European democratic parties and organisations, emphasised the need to end Öcalan’s isolation, on-going without reprieve for 35 months, and restart the process for a peaceful and permanent political resolution to the Kurdish issue.
The group’s first visit was to the Asrın Law Office, where Öcalan’s lawyers informed them about the lack of communication with clients in Imrali and the silence of international mechanisms regarding Turkey’s policy of isolation. Lawyer İbrahim Bilmez highlighted the importance of the delegation’s visit toward legal efforts to facilitate client-lawyer communications.
Delegates underscored the ongoing impact of the unresolved Kurdish issue on Turkey and the region, criticising the Turkish state’s continued violent and oppressive tactics, particularly evident in the restrictions faced by the annulled pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) during the last general elections in spring 2023.
They expressed solidarity with the formation of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party and condemned unfair trials and politically motivated jurisdictions against the opposition and its political representatives.
During the delegation press conference, European Free Alliance President Maria Lorena Lopez De Lacalle said:
“Both the repression of legal political parties and the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan need to end in order to restart the process towards a peaceful and lasting political solution to the Kurdish question.
“Since 2005, Abdullah Öcalan has advocated for Democratic Confederalism. The progressive parties that we represent are convinced that ecology and feminism, implemented with a bottom-up approach, are the driving forces for a better and fair society for all.
We denounce Abdullah Öcalan’s solitary confinement as a sheer violation of human rights and international law. It is time for peace and coexistence. It is time for the release of Abdullah Öcalan. It is time for peace and coexistence in the Middle East region.”
The delegation plans to continue efforts by mobilising election observers for the upcoming local elections on 31 March and supporting the DEM Party’s European Delegation event from 19-21 February, advocating for representatives of diverse ethnicities to hold the right to freely participate in the elections.
