At the international conference titled "Political prisoners in Turkey: Where is the path of Freedom and Peace leading" organized by the European Turkey Citizens' Commission (EUTCC) in the European Parliament, ideas were discussed about the isolation situation of PKK Leader Abdullah Ocalan. It was organized in 3 sections titled "The reality of Turkish Prisons", "Living Solidarity - the need for a political solution to the Kurdish issue" and "Open the gates: The road to Freedom and Peace". Parliamentarians, including the initiators of the "Freedom for Abdullah Ocalan, political solution to the Kurdish issue" campaign that started on October 10, politicians from different countries, academics, trade unionists, lawyers, human rights defenders and representatives of non-governmental organizations attended.

 

Speaking at the panel titled "The reality of Turkey's prisons", Abdullah Ocalan's lawyer Rezan Sarıca made a presentation titled "The 25-year-old Imralı Prison system as a prototype of the state of emergency prison system".

 

SARICA: IT HAS CONTINUED FOR 25 YEARS

 

Sarıca started his speech by stating that the February 15 international conspiracy gave Imralı Island Prison its real character and emphasized that no law was applied after Ocalan was taken prisoner. Sarıca said: “International law and asylum law were not implemented. He was handed over to a country where he was certain to be tried by death penalty and where he could be tortured. While he was pursuing a policy of peace and survival, an attitude devoid of democratic values and principles was displayed towards him. The Imralı Island Prison regime was developed as a result of such an international consensus. This international consensus in Imralı has been maintained for 25 years."

 

JONASSON: IMRALI DOORS MUST BE OPENED

 

Speaking later, Ogmundur Jonasson, former Minister of Justice and Internal Affairs of Iceland, made a presentation titled "Imralı and the International legal and political dimension". Jonasson stated that the gates of Imralı must be opened and Abdullah Ocalan must be liberated immediately. Emphasizing that it is unacceptable that no news has been received from Ocalan for the last 3 years, Jonasson said that international law was ignored in Imralı. Noting that the Kurdish issue must be solved through negotiation and diplomacy, not war, Jonasson said: “The main actor in solving the Kurdish issue is Abdullah Ocalan. This issue cannot be solved by isolation. The solution is negotiation."

 

CONFERENCE CONCLUSION DECLARATION: UNTIL FREEDOM

 

The declaration also "discussed further steps" and listed the following recommendations:

 

"* The prison isolation of Mr. Öcalan must be lifted immediately and the Council of Europe must intervene urgently to ensure that he meets with his family and lawyers.

 

*In light of the absence of news from Mr. Öcalan and his friends for 3 years and the seriousness of the latest possible threats to his life, we call on the General Secretariat and Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the EU, and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture to organise an urgent ad-hoc mission to visit Abdullah Öcalan on Imrali Island Prison.

 

* Further efforts should be made to publicise the worrying situation in the international and local news media.

 

*Trade unions should consider a one-minute general strike at an appropriate time to draw attention to the situation of Turkey’s political prisoners.

 

*Lawyers should contact the Bar Associations of which they are members to convey their concerns, and then also pass those on to the Ministries of Justice in their respective countries and to their legal counterparts in Turkey.

 

*Initiatives should be taken to bring the issue before the agenda of all national parliaments, especially the EU and the EC.

 

*All economic and military aid to the Turkish government, which violates its own domestic law and international law, should be immediately suspended. As these weapons of war are used to commit daily war crimes against the Kurdish people in Kurdistan.

 

*As stated by the European Court of Human Rights in its judgment of 18 March 2014 in ÖCALAN v. TURKEY (No.2), legal amendments should be made to provide conditions for a conditional release. Whereby, Mr. Öcalan should be discharged under conditions that will allow him to play a pivotal role in finding a just, peaceful, and democratic political solution to Turkey's decades-long occupation and subjugation of the Kurdish people."