German professor and politican Norman Paech shared his evaluations on the isolation of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan with Hawar News Agency.
Norman Paech, a prominent German expert on international law and politics is among the founders of many peace and anti-war initiatives whilst he has been one of the close followers and supporters of the situation of Abdullah Öcalan.
Paech shared his comments on the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan since February 15, 1999, when Abdullah Öcalan was abducted from Nairobi, Kenya, in a clandestine NATO operation.
Paech defined 22 years of isolation imposed upon Abdullah Öcalan as, “Brutal and inhumane treatment to seperate the Kurdish leader from his people,”
“Abdullah Öcalan is the biggest political power for a peaceful and democratic solution in Turkey,” he said.
Regarding the reasons for the February 15, 1999 operation he said, “The reason they captured and isolated Öcalan was to weaken the struggle of the Kurds for autonomous self-governance, for recognition of the Kurdish identity and for dignity of humanity and for a free and equal life,”
Professor Paech said that if countries such a Germany, Holland and Greece, had given political asylum to Abdullah Öcalan in 1999, then Turkey would never have been able to kidnap and imprison him. He said that those states should have recognized the rights of Abdullah Öcalan as a political refugee.
“It is time for the European Court of Human Rights and the Turkish judiciary to re-exaine the inhumane conditions of isolation on Imralı. Books and articles of Abdullah Öcalan have reached far beyond the borders of Turkey, yet he is still being held in an inhumane isolation, which must immediately be ended ensuring the physical freedom of Öcalan,” he said.
