Leandro Albani
Sixty-nine Nobel laureates denounced the critical situation of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been imprisoned on the island of İmralı in Turkey since 1999. In late July, the laureates sent a letter to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (EC), the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), and the UN Human Rights Committee.
Demand for rights protection
The letter, mainly reported in Kurdish media, demanded that the Turkish state fulfil its obligations to protect the rights of the 1978 founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The last communication Öcalan had with the outside world was on 25 March 2021, when he briefly spoke on the phone with one of his brothers. Since that day, there has been no news of the Kurdish leader, prompting the Kurdistan Liberation Movement – comprising hundreds of organisations, including the PKK – to hold various demonstrations, actions, and events to raise awareness of Öcalan’s condition. Alongside the Kurdish leader, there are three other political prisoners in İmralı.
Concerns over imprisonment conditions
In the letter, the laureates expressed “constant and growing concern about the conditions” suffered by the Kurdish leader, despite attempts by his relatives and lawyers to gain access to visit him. They highlighted that “the decades of Öcalan’s imprisonment and the various violations of his rights by the Turkish government during his incarceration are not news to you.”
The text recalled that although Öcalan’s legal representatives “were finally able to meet with him five times in 2019, probably due to hunger strikes carried out in Bakur (Turkey’s Kurdistan) and international pressure, these were the first such meetings since 2011.” Since then, the lawyers have not had access to their client.
The image depicts the cell in which Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), is confined on Turkey’s İmralı island prison.
Lack of international efforts
The Nobel laureates remarked that the current concern arises not only from the isolation to which Öcalan is subjected and the violation of his basic rights, but also “from the apparent lack of significant efforts made on his behalf by the European entities addressed here, as well as by the United Nations Human Rights Committee.” The letter emphasised that Öcalan’s rights are guaranteed by the Constitution of Turkey and the country’s domestic legislation, governed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Moreover, the Republic of Turkey adheres to international law, which is not observed within the walls surrounding İmralı.
UN and CPT involvement
In 2022, at the request of Öcalan’s lawyers, the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) urged Turkey to end the Kurdish leader’s incommunicado detention and allow him immediate and unrestricted access to communications with his legal representatives. So far, neither the Turkish government has complied with this demand nor has the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) taken any action.
The letter also noted that the CPT has had access to İmralı prison on several occasions and has written thirty reports on the conditions on the island prison. Despite this, it is unclear what impact its visits and reports have had on Öcalan’s treatment. For example, although the CPT announced that it had visited the prison in September 2022, in a subsequent meeting with his lawyers, it refused to provide them with any information about the visit.
Recent developments and continued isolation
It was only in February this year that the CPT confirmed that its envoys had seen and interviewed Öcalan and the three other political prisoners held during the 2022 visit. However, due to its domestic legislation, the CPT can only publish its reports if authorised to do so by the governments of the countries visited, something the Erdoğan administration forbade it to do.
When Fırat News Agency (ANF) requested an interview with a member of the CPT, the body’s executive secretary, Hugh Chetwynd, agreed to answer a written questionnaire. He said the committee “maintains a constant dialogue with the Turkish authorities, but this dialogue remains confidential. However, it is important to note that in 2019, as during previous visits, the delegation did not receive any allegations of ill-treatment of prisoners by prison officials in İmralı prison. On the contrary, all prisoners indicated that they were treated well by the staff.”
Chetwynd also stated that the CPT “follows very closely” the situation of Öcalan and the three other political prisoners on İmralı, and that the international body recognised, in 2019, “that all prisoners” on the Turkish island “were held in solitary confinement most of the time (i.e. 159 hours out of 168 hours per week, including 24 hours per day on weekends). In the CPT’s view, such a state of affairs is not acceptable.”
Appeal to President Erdoğan
In another letter from July this year, but addressed to President Erdoğan, the laureates demanded that the Turkish leader “once again reach a path of peace”. They stated, “We believe that you believe peace is possible, although we all know that it is not an easy path. You proved it with the Oslo talks (2009-2011) and the İmralı process (2013-2015) during which, under your guidance and supervision, government representatives met and discussed the possibilities of reconciliation with Abdullah Öcalan. Although the much-desired possibility of peace did not emerge from these talks, this does not mean that peace and reconciliation are impossible.”
In the letter, they also asked Erdoğan to revive “the efforts he started with the Oslo talks and the İmralı process, and to send his representatives to start new talks with Öcalan and to end his isolation on the island of İmralı.”
The image depicts the visit of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş and BDP Group Deputy Chair Pervin Buldan to Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), at Turkey’s İmralı island prison in 2013.
Conditions on İmralı Island
In June 2023, Cengiz Yürekli, one of Öcalan’s lawyers, signed an extensive report on the situation on İmralı, an island declared by the Turkish state as a “restricted military zone”. Yürekli described that “visits, correspondence and all similar matters are subject to a permit regime and procedure that are not anchored in legislation. For ten years and nine months, Öcalan was the only prisoner in İmralı. He was entitled to only one hour a day of access to the open air and had only a single radio channel. During this time, he had no other prisoners to contact and no television. Later, other convicts were transferred to İmrali prison. Today, there are four in total. According to CPT data, they are allowed to meet five hours a week, one hour a day. The rest of the time, i.e. 23 hours a day on weekdays and full weekends, they spend absolutely alone in their cells.”
Ongoing protests and mobilisations
While silence surrounds the island of İmralı and the political prisoners breathing behind bars, thousands of Kurds mobilise weekly to demand direct dialogue with their leader from Turkey. For Erdoğan, Öcalan’s thoughts, actions, and words remain his most dangerous enemies.
*Leandro Albani is an Argentinean journalist with a specialisation in the Middle East and Maghreb. He is the author of several books, among them Revolution in Kurdistan (2014) and ISIS: The Army of Terror (2016).
