A delegation consisting of representatives of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), Democratic Regions Party (DBP), Free Women’s Movement (TJA) and Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) organised community meetings to discuss the isolation of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been held in a high-security prison built especially for him on Imralı Island in Turkey since 1999.
Saliha Aydeniz, DBP co-chair shared her evaluations with Jin News on the meetings they held in several Kurdish majority cities, including Diyarbakır (Amed).
“Today, both the people of Turkey and the peoples of the Middle East are oppressed by the Turkish state. Everything that is happening is related to isolation policies. We held meetings in village to village, home to home and listened to the people, listened to the women especially. The most important issue raised during our discussions was the isolation policies,” she said.
“There has been the policy of isolation imposed on Imralı Island for quite a long time. For the last six years, Mr. Öcalan has been under heavy isolation. Today, both the people of Turkey and the peoples of the Middle East are oppressed by the Turkish state. All that is happening is related to isolation policies. ”
Aydeniz said the methods of self-defense against the isolation and oppressive policies imposed on people were also discussed during the community meetings. “The most important items in our list of issues discussed was the isolation and trustee politics that have turned into a policy to govern the whole country and we discussed how we could defend ourselves against such impositions.”
The DBP co-chair also pointed to the social reflections as a result of the isolation policy of the Turkish government. “The AKP-MHP [Justice and Development Party and Nationalist Movement Party] mentality imposes monism. They impose policies of war and discrimination in order to realise this mentality. The main purpose of all this is the isolation of the society. Everyone feels in isolation today.”
Forest fires, ecological crisis, the increased levels of murder of women cannot be evaluated independent from the isolation policy, according to Aydeniz. “These are all related to the isolation policy. Also, the special war policies, massacres, increase in the use of drugs, increase in rape and sexual assaults are all related to the isolation policy.”
Considering all these reflections on the concept of isolation, Aydeniz ended her evaluations saying, “Breaking the isolation of Mr. Öcalan and ensuring his freedom should be the main item on the agenda of our struggle.”
