Tülay Hatimoğulları, co-chair of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (HEDEP), denounced the three-year denial of family visits and legal representation for Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
In an address to parliament on Tuesday, Hatimoğulları noted that no other country would permit such prolonged isolation of a prisoner and called on the Turkish Justice Minister to comply with a United Nations committee ruling on Öcalan’s treatment over a year ago.
🔴 Turkey's pro-Kurdish HEDEP Co-chair Tülay Hatimoğulları (@TulayHatim) urged has called for an end to the isolation of the jailed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan.#Ocalan | #Isolation | #HEDEPhttps://t.co/tnGByc2Mbj pic.twitter.com/JMd5aSW6Mx
— MedyaNews (@medyanews_) November 8, 2023
Öcalan has been serving a life sentence on İmralı Island in the Sea of Marmara since 1999, as the founder and leader of the outlawed PKK. Hatimoğulları appealed to international monitoring bodies like the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture to inspect the prison and report on Öcalan’s health and detention conditions, which are of deep concern to Turkey’s Kurdish community and peoples across the wider Middle East region.
The HEDEP politician argued that ending Öcalan’s “aggravated isolation” could significantly aid a resolution of regional conflicts such as the ongoing war in Gaza, reiterating that Öcalan’s total incommunicado detention, ongoing since March 2021, violates international law.
