An ‘Imralı Peace Delegation’ held an online meeting on the occasion of the 22nd anniversary of the the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s arrest. “Imralı Peace Delegation’s 2021 February Report” was announced at the meeting.
The delegation higlighted their demand that a ‘new peace process’ be re-launched in Turkey and that the ‘isolation system’ on Imralı Island should be ‘intervened’ and stopped.
“As a result of all our research, our interlocutors linked the increasing violations of human rights across the country to the deepeninng isolation of Mr. Öcalan,” said the report.
The Imrali Peace Delegation consists of ten members, including prominent politicians, trade unionists, academics, lawyers and social movement activists from various countries, including Iceland, India, Italy, the USA and the UK.
The report also included the following remarks:
“Such expansion of the Imralı isolation system means the institutionalisation of fascism. The Constitution is not applied in practice. Turkey does not apply neither its national laws nor international laws. Instead, they adopt impunity and cruelty as their legal norm.
The international community has been silently observing all that is happening. This silence means to be a partner of this crime. The Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) visited Imralı island in May 2019 and published a report in August 2020, in which they extremely vaguely appealed to the Turkish authorities for ‘a complete revision without further delay’. Having not complied with this appeal, the Turkish authorities further deepened the isolation. Introducing new bans on Öcalan and other prisoners on Imralı, they completely cut their communication with the outside world. No one has heard from Abdullah Öcalan since 27 April 2020.”
The following recommendations were shared by the Imralı Peace Delegation:
* It is vitally important that the pressure on the Turkish state be continued in order to end the isolation imposed on Abdullah Öcalan. The international community should also push international human rights mechanisms, in particular the Council of Europe within this regard. The CPT should be encouraged to use its investigative mission at full capacity in the Imralı case.
* The international community as well as the international institutions and governments should be encouraged to intervene against the isolation system, which has been leading to widespread and brutal violations of human rights in Turkey.
* International NGOs, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch should be pressurised to take immediate action against the isolation of Öcalan and the general situation in Turkey.
* Social movements around the world should be encouraged to develop solidarity with the Kurdish freedom movement and other opposition groups in Turkey. Internationally, women and women’s organisations and NGOs should be encouraged to share solidarity messages with the Kurdish women’s movement either by direct visits of support or by video messages or written letters.
* International women’s organisations should put pressure on and warn the Council of Europe to act immediately against violence against women in Turkey.
* Lawyers from all over the world should be encouraged to apply international penal mechanisms and to be in solidarity with their colleagues in Turkey. The international community should emphasise and condemn the illegality of the isolation imposed on Imralı Island.
