ANKARA - HDP MP Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit, who stated that the Ministry of Justice, which is silent on applications for opinion with PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, is committing a crime and said, "Isolation, which is a crime against humanity, must end as soon as possible."

 

PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been held under heavy isolation conditions for 24 years in İmralı Type F High Security Prison, has not been heard from since the interrupted phone call on 25 March 2021. Concerns that started with the applications made by families and lawyers left unanswered, deepened after the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) visited Imrali Island on September 20-29, 2022.

 

APPLICATIONS TO THE MINISTRY

 

Upon rising public concerns, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chairs Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar, Party Spokesperson Ebru Günay and HDP MP Ömer Öcalan applied to the Ministry of Justice on October 20, 2022, requesting a meeting with Abdullah Öcalan. However, the ministry did not give a positive or negative response to the application, even 87 days have passed so far.

 

Against the continued inccomunicado situation in İmralı, this time Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Co-Chair Saliha Aydeniz and HDP MPs Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit, Nuran İmir and Erdal Aydemir applied to the ministry on November 30, 2022 to go to İmralı Island.

 

On the same day, HDP former Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş, who is being held in Edirne F Type Prison, wrote a petition to the ministry through his lawyers and applied for a meeting with Abdullah Öcalan via SEGBİS.

 

After the applications were left unanswered, HDP MPs started a Justice Watch in front of the Ministry of Justice on December 21, demanding that Abdullah Öcalan meet with his lawyers. On the second day of the demonstration, Democratic Society Congress (DTK) Co-Chair Berdan Öztürk, HDP MPs Sezai Temelli, Remziye Tosun, Abdullah Koç, Dilan Dirayet Taşdemir and Şevin Coşkun applied to the ministry with a request to meet with the PKK Leader on December 22.

 

NO RESPONSE TO APPLICATIONS

 

However, the Ministry of Justice has not yet responded to the applications of the DTK, DBP and HDP, as well as the applications made by the families and lawyers. Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit, one of the HDP MPs who applied for a meeting with Abdullah Öcalan, stated that the Ministry of Justice has been silent for a long time and left all applications unanswered. In addition to this, Koçyiğit stated that the Ministry of Justice did not respond to questions about the isolation in Imrali and left the calls made during the Justice Watch unanswered. No answer is given to anyone who wants the isolation to end. This silence itself stems from lawlessness from the very beginning.”

 

NO LEGAL BASIS

 

Emphasizing that the Imrali isolation system has no legal basis, Koçyiğit said, “Since it has no legal basis, the Ministry of Justice is trying to stall the people with its silence. They have nothing to say. They do not give a response because they know that their position is illegal. The Ministry of Justice is directly responsible for this unlawfulness. Imrali Prison is under the Ministry of Justice, of course, it must answer our questions and make a public statement very quickly. Apart from all these, our main expectation is to meet with Mr. Öcalan. We, as the members of the parliament who applied for a visit, want his family and lawyers to go to Imrali very quickly and have a face-to-face meeting with Mr. Öcalan.”

 

CONCERNS ARE GETTING DEEPER

 

Expressing that there has been no news from Abdullah Öcalan for 22 months and that concerns about his health and safety have deepened, Koçyiğit said that the Ministry of Justice has not taken steps to address these concerns. Koçyiğit said, “Every day, every moment, the Ministry of Justice commits crimes. Every day it doesn't answer us, every day it continues this isolation, it is committing a crime. It tramples on the law and constitution every day. We must state that this situation is unacceptable. The attitude of the Ministry of Justice is not independent of the attitude of the AKP-MHP government. We see that there is a consensus in this respect. 

 

MA / Özgür Paksoy