The continued incommunicado detention of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı Island Prison in northwestern Turkey has been met with outrage from prominent international figures.
World-renowned Swiss sociologist, author and former Vice President of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Advisory Board, Jean Ziegler told Medya Haber TV’s Serkan Demirel on Friday that isolation is a crime against humanity and called on the international community to recognise Öcalan as the legitimate leader of the Kurdish people and to take action against his isolation.
The author, who was a close fellow of Latin American Marxist revolutionary guerrilla leader Ernesto Che Guevara, described the PKK as a national liberation movement and said the Kurdish-led autonomous system in northeastern Syria was a model for the world.
Highlighting that Turkey is a NATO member, Ziegler criticised Western countries for their silence on the Turkish government’s crackdown on the Kurds.
“Instead of forcing Erdoğan to recognise Kurdish self-determination, freedom of cultural identity and democratic rights, the West supports him,” said the Swiss writer. “Each successive government imposes more violent, cruel and stupid policies against the Kurds. And the West continues to remain silent.”
