Although one month and 20 days have passed since Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan's "Call for Peace and Democratic Society" was announced by the Imrali delegation on 27 February, the state has not taken any steps. There is no change in the situation of sick prisoners, which many people demanded as a priority step after the call that resonated all over the world.

 

Huseyin Kucukbalaban, Co-Chair of the Human Rights Association (IHD), said that President Erdoğan could use the special amnesty authorisation for Abdullah Öcalan for the healthy progress of the solution process.

 

Criticising the discrimination in the justice system, Kucukbalaban said, "While 84-year-old mothers are held in prison, people sentenced for manslaughter are released on health grounds." Reacting to the discrimination in the justice system, Kucukbalaban said that Kurds and socialists are subjected to this discrimination. Kucukbalaban said, "There is a special pardon authorised by the President for 10 people. In fact, this pardon power is regulated in Article 104 of the Constitution and is a power given to the President. If you remember how Presidents have used these powers in the past, it is an article regulated in the 1982 Constitution and no amendment has been made on this article since then. Now, since 1982, Presidents have used the special power of the Presidency to postpone or terminate the execution of release 450 people, that is, the power we call pardon. Ahmet Necdet Sezer is the President who has used the highest number of amnesty authorisations among the Presidents so far, with 263 persons. Again, the current President took office in 2014 and since then, according to the data compiled by İHD, he has used the power of amnesty for 30 people, including the lifting of the sentences of retired generals sentenced to life imprisonment in the 28 February trial for health reasons. So, what does this pardon power cover? It covers the authorisation to pardon the sentences of certain persons due to permanent illness, disability, old age and old age."

 

Kucukbalaban said that the government is releasing people who have committed crimes against humanity, not "crimes against the state". Kucukbalaban emphasised that a 45-year-old prisoner sentenced for intentional manslaughter and using unlicensed weapons was released with the President's amnesty power: "Another 43-year-old prisoner, who was sentenced for manslaughter, was released in this way. It is interesting to note that Mehmet Emin Alpsoy, one of the perpetrators in the Hezbollah case and responsible for the murder of Mehmet Sincar, was pardoned by the President's decree in 2023. Mehmet Emin Alpsoy's son Şeyhmuz Aksoy was similarly released within the scope of this amnesty."

 

‘84-YEAR-OLD MOTHERS IN PRISONS’

 

Küçükbalaban also said that public awareness has been raised about the health problems of Mahir Polat, the Deputy Secretary General of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB), and as a result of the evaluation of Mahir Polat by the Forensic Medicine Institution (ATK), Polat's release was decided and this situation made them happy, "There are 84-year-old mothers in prisons.  Hatice Onaran, also a member of IHD Prisons Commission, is 70 years old and is being held in prison despite certain illnesses. We have been trying to raise public awareness on this issue for months. But unfortunately, no pardon has been used until today. As İHD, we have been publishing periodical reports on rights violations in prisons, ill prisoners and seriously ill prisoners for many years. According to our most recent report for the year 2022, one thousand 517 ill prisoners, including 651 seriously ill prisoners, are currently in prisons," he said.  

 

‘REGULATION MUST BE MADE’

 

Emphasising that the Kurdish question is being discussed and that the process has a historical meaning, Kucukbalaban stressed: "A process is being carried out and a historical issue for Turkey such as the Kurdish question is being discussed. The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) and the European Court of Human Rights, these committees and courts, to which Turkey is a party, state that people in solitary confinement are under torture. In other words, if you want to solve such an issue, you will use the special amnesty authorisation of Abdullah Öcalan, who is one of the main actors of this problem. Either you issue a general amnesty or by another method, in order for this process to work in a healthy way, an arrangement must be made urgently for the prisoners who will be included in this process and whom his tutelage has just given, which we call seriously ill prisoners."

 

MA/Ömer Güngör