ISTANBUL/AMED –  14 organizations consisting of rights and law organizations applied to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) on January 12 for PKK Leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is held under absolute isolation conditions in Imralı Type F High Security Closed Prison and has not been heard from for 35 months. The application was also made for Hamili Yıldırım, Veysi Aktaş and Ömer Hayri Konar, who are held in Imralı. In the application, an "urgent visit" was demanded. On January 22, 1,330 lawyers from 35 bar associations applied to the Ministry of Justice, demanding to meet with Abdullah Ocalan.

 

Güçlü Sevimli, Headquarters director of the Contemporary Lawyers Association (ÇHD), which is among the legal organizations that applied to the CPT, and Serhat Çakmak, Co-Chair of the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), which is among the applicants to the Ministry of Justice, spoke to Mezopotamya Agency about their applications.

 

'ISOLATION HAS BECOME A WORLD ISSUE’

 

Noting that the continuation of the isolation imposed in Imralı is no longer legal, Çakmak stated that the isolation has become a Middle East and World issue. Çakmak noted that through isolation, an attempt was made to prevent Abdullah Ocalan's role in the solution of the Kurdish issue and his thoughts and views from being evaluated by the society.

 

'THE FIRST ILLEGALITY STARTED IN IMRALI'

 

Underlining that the point where the lawlessness started was Imralı Island Prison, Çakmak said: "The lawlessness started there and the lawlessness there continued to spread to all other areas of the country. Today, we have reached a level where the decisions of the Constitutional Court are not implemented. Now this is normalizing within the society. Since the political power holds the power, it can consolidate and control this normalization.”

 

THE UNSOLVED KURDISH ISSUE

 

Pointing out that the democratization issue cannot be solved without solving the Kurdish issue, Çakmak said: "The biggest obstacle to democratization is that the Kurdish issue is left unresolved." Çakmak stated that being right alone is not enough and that it is necessary to fight, adding: "Wanting change requires courage and going through a painful process."

 

Calling social community organizations and rights organizations, Çakmak said: "If we say that we need to democratize and grow this country together, this isolation needs to be abolished. The real truth of these lands is peace. The main axis of the ancientness of the Mesopotamian geography is the peaceful coexistence of more than one nation. In order to establish this peace, the absolute isolation on the main actor of the solution to the Kurdish issue must be abolished."

 

'THE WHOLE WORLD NEEDS TO KNOW'

 

Lawyer Sevimli reminded CPT's reports about the isolation and stated that the isolation was not abolished despite the reports. Stating that all legal initiatives must be taken to end the isolation, Sevimli said: "Not only Turkey, but the whole world must know about this situation."

 

Pointing out that the CPT has not yet announced their report on the last Imrali visit, Sevimli said: "An operation was carried out in the prisons in Turkey on December 19, 2000 and was named 'Operation Return to Life'. After that, Type F prisons, that is, intensive isolation and confinement is started throughout Turkey. Prisons containing prisons have come into force. We are currently in that process. After the Type F prisons were first opened, the CPT came and inspected them. The reports they gave and the opinions they expressed did not match the intense isolation there. Although they saw that there was intense isolation, they did not display views that clearly revealed this.”

 

CALL TO TBB AND BAR ASSOCIATIONS

 

Calling on the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB) and bar associations, Sevimli said that they must put the Imrali isolation on their agenda.