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The Turkish government wages psychological war on Kurds through the isolation imposed on jailed Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan, Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) executive council co-chair Besê Hozat said in an interview.
The KCK Executive criticised the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) over rumours that Öcalan did not meet with a CPT delegation during the group’s September visit to the İmralı Island Prison, where he has been serving a life sentence since 1999. The government let these rumours spread because they want to foster anxiety among Kurdish people, she added.
“Naturally, Kurdish MPs have been holding sit-ins,” Hozat said.
Hozat also said the CPT and the European Council were reinforcing the interests of the Turkish government, who refuse to provide clear information on the matter. According to Hozat, Öcalan’s isolation is “a tool of psychological warfare” against Kurds, ahead of Turkey’s general and presidential elections planned for June 2023.
“The Turkish state, in the person of Öcalan, wants to take over the will of resisting Kurds and women,” Hozat continued.
While Öcalan has been able to regularly meet with his family and lawyers during brief periods, he has been held in absolute incommunicado status since an interrupted phone call with his brother in March 2021.
