Abdullah Öcalan is a Kurdish political leader seen by millions of Kurds globally as their poli tical representative. In February 1999, he was abducted in an international intelligence operation and sent to Turkey. He has been in prison ever since, barred from all contact with the outside world for years at a time. He has been subjected to torture and other cruel and degrading treatment.
Despite this, the movement Öcalan built and the people inspired by it are at the forefront of Kurdish struggles for self-determination and multi-ethnic, multi-religious movements for democracy in the Middle East. His theories inspire those fighting for self-determination, women’s liberation, and an end to all forms of inequality and exploitation across the globe.
Turkey’s unresolved ‘Kurdish question’ — the conflicts and political instability deriving from the Turkish Republic’s violent denial of fundamental civil and political rights to 20 million Kurdish citizens—has cost tens of thousands of lives, displaced millions, and empowered hardline nationalists, religious fundamentalists, and autocrats worldwide. It is linked to many of the most serious regional and global challenges impacting the lives and well-being of millions—occupation, racism, the oppression of women, religious intolerance, economic exploitation, and the destruction of the environment.
The campaign is international in part because the Kurdish question is an international problem. Kurdistan is divided between four states: Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. It was European powers, including Britain and France, who created these divisions a century ago. Turkey’s ability to wage war on Kurds across the Middle East is the result of decades of unconditional support from the United States and other NATO members — and Turkey’s new strategy of plaYing those powers off of other states , like Russia and Iran, to extract anti-Kurdish concessions from all sides.
It is also international because Ocalan’s solutions are international. His framework for a political solution to the Kurdish question could end a century of war and oppression in Turkey and neighboring countries. The universal theories that provide the framework for his solutions and be a model for people
everywhere seeking alternatives to the great crises of our time—from steepening inequality to climate change to the rise of far-right autocrats taking advantage of growing disillusionment with the system.
When Ocalan is free to participate in a political process to resolve the Kurdish question and to continue to develop his ideas, the result will be more freedom and more peace for all of us. Unfortunately, the authoritarian leadership in Turkey knows this and greatly fears this scenario—and so, with the support of the international community, it has kept Öcalan in isolation for nearly three years in order to maintain its hold on power and prolong its endless wars.
In Öcalan’s last conversation with his lawyers, which occurred in 2019, he said that he could solve the Kurdish question in a week if given the chance— and that he had developed his ideas for a political solution to the Kurdish question even further since the Turkish government last abandoned peace talks. As Turkey expands its occupation of Iraqi Kurdistan and North and East Syria and its crackdown on dissent at home and abroad, the Kurdish people and other peoples of Turkey, the communities of the Middle East, and the world need a political solution now more than ever.
We are also more concerned about Ocalan’s security and well-being than ever before. Isolation is internationally recognized as a form of torture. For this form of torture to go on for three years is extremely dangerous. We do not know anything about Öcalan’s fate beyond the fact that he has recently received ‘disciplinary measures’ to block meetings on false pretenses and has allegedly been sent death threats.
This situation is unsustainable. For this reason, we make the following demand:
Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan must be allowed to meet with his lawyers and family and, ultimately, freed under conditions that allow him to play a role in finding a just and democratic political solution to Turkey’s decades-old Kurdish conflict.
WHO IS ABDULLAH ÖCALAN?
Abdullah Öcalan was born to a poor family in 1949 in the village of Amara (Turkish: Ömerli) in the province of Urfa in North Kurdistan (the Kurdish region of Turkey). Upon finishing secondary school, he found employment as a civil servant in the city of Amed (Diyarbakir). He later sat for university examinations and registered as a student in the Istanbul University Law Faculty. In 1971 , he transferred to the prestigious Faculty of Political Science at the University of Ankara.
After the 1971 military coup, Öcalan observed the further denial and suppression of Kurdish identity and culture by the Turkish government. Affected by this problem, and moved by the Kurds ‘ impoverished social and economic conditions , he and several friends decided to investigate the Kurdish situation further.
In April 1973, Öcalan brought together a group of six revolutionary university students in order to form an independent Kurdish political organization. This group saw Kurdistan as a colony whose population had been forcibly denied its right to self-determination. The group’s primary goal was to change this situation.
The young movement gained momentum and found new followers. But as it did, the Kurdish aristocracy, rival political groups, and Turkish security forces became alarmed and violently attacked its adherents.
On November 27, 1978, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was founded in a small village near Amed (Diyarbakir). A modern national liberation movement
was born, with Abdullah Öcalan clearly emerging as its ideological and political leader.
The Turkish authorities reacted harshly, tolerating none of the new party’s peaceful political activity. Detentions and armed clashes followed. In 1979, observing signs of an imminent military coup, Ocalan and other members left Turkey, reorganizing in Syria. His foresight secured the survival of the nascent organization. On September 12, 1980, the Turkish military seized power, resulting in thousands of detentions and widespread torture.
Under the military regime, political struggle for Kurdish rights was impossible. All who tried were jailed, exiled or killed. From abroad, Öcalan continued to lead the PKK’s political activities and began preparations for the armed resistance—which began in 1984.
Öcalan soon realized that armed struggle could not bring an ultimate resolution to the Kurdish question. In the early 1990s, he tried to shift the focus to a political solution that would address the dispossession and denial at the heart of the problem. In 1993, he first voiced the possibility that Kurds could live peaceably as equal citizens of a politically transformed Turkey instead of seeking a separate state. He called a unilateral ceasefire and held indirect talks with President Turgut Özal—but, following Özal’s mysterious death on April 17, 1993, a new, bloody chapter was opened for the Kurds.
In 1998, during another unilateral cease-fire declared by Öcalan, Turkey threatened Syria with war over his presence in the country. To prevent conflict, Ocalan went to Europe in order to promote a political solution. But he was pushed out of Europe, too, and finally found himself in Kenya. On February 15, 1999 , he was abducted in a clandestine international operation and brought to Turkey.
“I almost want to say freedom is the goal of the universe.
I have often asked myself if the universe is not, in fact, in pursuit of freedom.”
— Abdullah ÖcaIan
CONDITIONS IN IMRALI PRISON
Ocalan’s rights have been violated from the moment he was captured. While Turkish authorities are directly responsible, international complicity plays an important role in maintaining these rights violations.
Extraordinary renditions conducted without judicial processes, like Ocalan’s kidnapping, are themselves contrary to international law.
Ocalan’s trial was condemned as unfair by human rights organizations and international courts. In 1999, Amnesty International found that “the trial against Abdullah Öcalan violated both national law and international standards” and called for a complete impartial and independent retrial. A 2005 European Court of Human Rights Decision decision ruled that his trial was not independent or impartial, that he was not promptly brought before a judge, and that his defense was not given enough time to prepare.
For years, Ocalan was the only prisoner on Imrali Island. Now, there are four others. He is regularly held incommunicado, barred from contact with the outside world for months or even years at a time. Prolonged isolation and solitary confinement are considered to be forms of torture under international law. They are violations of the U.N. Mandela Principles, devised to protect the rights of prisoners I .
In 2007 , it was reported that Ocalan had been poisoned in prison. A European laboratory confirmed the presence of toxic chromium and strontium in hair
1 . https://www.un.org/en/un-chronicle/nelson-mandela-rules-protecting-rights-persons-deprived-libertysamples2.
Kurds around the world protested demanding accountability, but the prison administration faced no consequences.
In 2008, Ocalan’s lawyers reported that Öcalan had been dragged by prison personnel to an adjoining room and forced to the ground by three persons while his cell was ravaged. When he protested against these brutal measures, he was explicitly threatened with death3. Once again, there was no accountability.
These human rights abuses are an issue of international concern.
The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture is tasked with monitoring prison conditions in Turkey and other European states. The Committee and other European institutions have regularly failed to hold Turkey responsible for its systemic violations of Turkish and international law in regards to Öcalan’s case.
The United States openly played a major role in Ocalan’s capture, and has helped Turkey cover up widespread human rights abuses in his subsequent trial and imprisonment. Antony Blinken — who served on U.S. President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council and is currently Secretary of State to President Joe Biden — said that “the United States was determined to bring Öcalan to justice. We provided all necessary assistance to Turkey. But we wanted him to have democratic rights, like everybody else. The judgment was carried out in an open and fair manner4.”
- https://www.freeocalan.org/articles/english/analysis-of-ocalan-intoxication-results-by-dr-kintz
- https://www.freeocalan.org/articles/english/ocalan-tortured-prison
- https ://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/aponun-teslim-emri-clintondan-38248135
A BRIEF SUMMARY OF MR. ABDULLAH ÖCALAN’S LEGAL STATUS
EXECUTION VERDICT
- Abdullah Öcalan has been held in imrall Island Prison since February 15, 1999, when he was abducted from Kenya and brought to Turkey. Öcalan was sentenced to death after a trial in imrall Island and his case was taken to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The Grand Court of the ECHR ruled on May 2, 2005 that Article 6 of the convention, regarding a fair trial, had been violated, and it established retrial as a remedy. However, this request was initially rejected on the grounds that a retrial was not possible for Mr. Öcalan due to the Turkish laws enacted for him at the time. But then, without any legal change, another court, without informing Mr. Öcalan’s lawyers, closed the file on the grounds that it had opened and reviewed the 17,000-page file and that a retrial would not lead to any change. In this way, the Turkish Government claimed that it was fulfilling the judgments of the ECtHR. Unfortunately, the COE Committee of Ministers, which is responsible for monitoring the implementation of ECtHR judgments, did not make any effort to counter this illegal manipulation and closed the file with a political decision, ruling that Turkey had fulfilled their judgment.
AGGRAVATED LIFE SENTENCE
- The death penalty imposed on Mr. Öcalan has been converted into an aggravated life sentence, which was introduced into Turkish law for the first time after the abolition of the death penalty in 2002. With this sentence, a new type of punishment was introduced, which obliged him to remain in severe isolation until his death, i.e. without the possibility of parole. All subsequent sentenced prisoners were also subject to this mechanism. The isolation and aggravated life sentence against Öcalan was also taken to the ECHR. On March 1 8, 2014, the Court ruled that both the conditions of isolation and the aggravated life sentence were violations of Article 3 of the ECHR, prohibiting torture. The court also found that the violation begins not at the moment of the verdict, but from the moment of its birth. And it underlined that every prisoner must have the hope of release. This judgment has been on the agenda of the Committee of Ministers of the COE after 7 years and continues to be monitored and is expected to be implemented. The Turkish Government, on the other hand, states that the aggravated life sentence will not be changed as it is regulated by law.
CONTINUOUS EXECUTION
- Öcalan was the only civilian on imrall Island until 2009. Since then, 5 inmates from other prisons were brought to the island. These prisoners were changed over time. As of today, apart from Mr. Öcalan, there are 3 prisoners in imrall Prison. The ECHR’s violation decision on March 18, 2014 on isolation covered the period between 1999 and 2009 and was defined as a violation of the prohibition of torture. After 2009, with the arrival of new prisoners, a new application was made to the ECHR as the isolation continued with the same severity. This application was filed in 201 1 on behalf of Mr. ÖcaIan and 5 prisoners. It has been 12 years since this application was made and all the processes related to this application have been exhausted and have reached the decision stage. However, the ECtHR has not yet made a decision on this case and there is no clarity as to when it will make a decision on this application.
NEW CASES
- Apart from this ongoing case at the ECtHR, there is another case filed against Greece at the ECtHR in 201 9, after the completion of the domestic legal process, upon the refusal to process Mr. Öcalan’s asylum application while he was in Greece and his illegal delivery to Turkey. This case is also ongoing.
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS DO NOT FULFILL THEIR DUTIES
- As the isolation deepened and family and lawyer visits were completely banned, an individual application for measures was also submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) in 2021. Taking into account the gravity of the situation, the OHCHR, in a letter dated September 6, 2022, requested the Turkish government to “put an end to the incommunicado detention of the applicants in accordance with Article 92 of the Committee’s Rules of Procedure and to allow the applicants immediate and unrestricted access to a lawyer of their choice.” However, the state and government authorities did not comply with the Committee’s request for this measure either. On the contrary, the government responded with new arbitrary family and guardian visits, telephone and lawyer bans. This application is still pending.
BAN ON FAMILY AND LAWYER
- From the date of Mr. Öcalan’s abduction to Turkey until today, numerous applications have been filed in Turkish domestic law regarding the conditions of isolation. It is not posSible to give the number and breakdown of these here. These legal initiatives are still ongoing. Twice a week, applications are made to the prison administration and the relevant prosecutor’s office requesting lawyer visits. However, these applications are not even answered. At the same time, applications are regularly made once a week for family meetings. For example, in 2022 alone, there were 98 requests for a lawyer meeting and 49 applications for a family meeting, which went unanswered.
The application for a family meeting is rejected due to the disciplinary punishment given to Öcalan and his friends for walking and chatting during sports hours. Öcalan and his friends first appeal these disciplinary penalties before the Execution Judge, but all applications are rejected. The appeals against these decisions are also rejected by the High Criminal Court without exception. Similarly, bans on lawyer visits every 6 months have become automatic. Lawyers are not informed about the disciplinary penalty that prevents family visit requests. Lawyers only learn about it in practice after the appeal period expires. Law yers are also excluded from other legal processes.
In total, it is possible to say the following about the domestic legal process. To date, not a single positive decision or result has been obtained in thousands of applications and files related to ÖcaIan in the domestic legal process, from the prison administration to the prosecutor’s office to the Constitutional Court. Without exception, all requests and applications have been rejected. Especially since 2021, the judiciary has not only rejected the requests, but has also turned into a part of the isolation mechanism by conducting this process without the knowledge of the lawyers and preventing their initiatives. Therefore, we cannot talk about a functioning domestic legal process in Turkey for Öcalan and his friends.
TURKEY DOES NOT APPLY DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL LAW
- By not implementing the judgments of the ECtHR and the UNHRC, domestic legal mechanisms in Turkey also break the influence of international legal mechanisms and render them dysfunctional. Unfortunately, the Turkish judicial system is not implementing and rendering dysfunctional hundreds of international judicial decisions, such as the Kavala and Demirtas decisions, based on the conclusions drawn from the Öcalan case. The island of imrall functions as a laboratory for the Turkish judicial and political process where all kinds of lawlessness are tested. The conclusions drawn here are used against everyone, especially dissidents living in Turkey.
PERPETUAL TORTURE
- Based on the facts stated above, we can say that Turkish domestic law is closed to Mr. Öcalan, and that it is even a means of concealing or providing legal cover for the isolation and torture practices. In this case, it is possible to interpret Mr. ÖcaIan’s legal situation in the light of the ECtHR Decisions as follows: Since 1999, Mr. Öcalan has been held for 25 years in an unfair trial, i.e. without an acceptable legal basis and under conditions considered as torture, and it is a requirement of international law and justice that he be released and free as a matter of his right to hope.It is also international because Ocalan’s solutions are international. His framework for a political solution to the Kurdish question could end a century of war and oppression in Turkey and neighboring countries. The universal theories that provide the framework for his solutions and be a model for people
everywhere seeking alternatives to the great crises of our time—from steepening inequality to climate change to the rise of far-right autocrats taking advantage of growing disillusionment with the system.
When Ocalan is free to participate in a political process to resolve the Kurdish question and to continue to develop his ideas, the result will be more freedom and more peace for all of us. Unfortunately, the authoritarian leadership in Turkey knows this and greatly fears this scenario—and so, with the support of the international community, it has kept Öcalan in isolation for nearly three years in order to maintain its hold on power and prolong its endless wars.
In Öcalan’s last conversation with his lawyers, which occurred in 2019, he said that he could solve the Kurdish question in a week if given the chance— and that he had developed his ideas for a political solution to the Kurdish question even further since the Turkish government last abandoned peace talks. As Turkey expands its occupation of Iraqi Kurdistan and North and East Syria and its crackdown on dissent at home and abroad, the Kurdish people and other peoples of Turkey, the communities of the Middle East, and the world need a political solution now more than ever.
We are also more concerned about Ocalan’s security and well-being than ever before. Isolation is internationally recognized as a form of torture. For this form of torture to go on for three years is extremely dangerous. We do not know anything about Öcalan’s fate beyond the fact that he has recently received ‘disciplinary measures’ to block meetings on false pretenses and has allegedly been sent death threats.
This situation is unsustainable. For this reason, we make the following demand:
Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan must be allowed to meet with his lawyers and family and, ultimately, freed under conditions that allow him to play a role in finding a just and democratic political solution to Turkey’s decades-old Kurdish conflict.
WHO IS ABDULLAH ÖCALAN?
Abdullah Öcalan was born to a poor family in 1949 in the village of Amara (Turkish: Ömerli) in the province of Urfa in North Kurdistan (the Kurdish region of Turkey). Upon finishing secondary school, he found employment as a civil servant in the city of Amed (Diyarbakir). He later sat for university examinations and registered as a student in the Istanbul University Law Faculty. In 1971 , he transferred to the prestigious Faculty of Political Science at the University of Ankara.
After the 1971 military coup, Öcalan observed the further denial and suppression of Kurdish identity and culture by the Turkish government. Affected by this problem, and moved by the Kurds ‘ impoverished social and economic conditions , he and several friends decided to investigate the Kurdish situation further.
In April 1973, Öcalan brought together a group of six revolutionary university students in order to form an independent Kurdish political organization. This group saw Kurdistan as a colony whose population had been forcibly denied its right to self-determination. The group’s primary goal was to change this situation.
The young movement gained momentum and found new followers. But as it did, the Kurdish aristocracy, rival political groups, and Turkish security forces became alarmed and violently attacked its adherents.
On November 27, 1978, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was founded in a small village near Amed (Diyarbakir). A modern national liberation movement
was born, with Abdullah Öcalan clearly emerging as its ideological and political leader.
The Turkish authorities reacted harshly, tolerating none of the new party’s peaceful political activity. Detentions and armed clashes followed. In 1979, observing signs of an imminent military coup, Ocalan and other members left Turkey, reorganizing in Syria. His foresight secured the survival of the nascent organization. On September 12, 1980, the Turkish military seized power, resulting in thousands of detentions and widespread torture.
Under the military regime, political struggle for Kurdish rights was impossible. All who tried were jailed, exiled or killed. From abroad, Öcalan continued to lead the PKK’s political activities and began preparations for the armed resistance—which began in 1984.
Öcalan soon realized that armed struggle could not bring an ultimate resolution to the Kurdish question. In the early 1990s, he tried to shift the focus to a political solution that would address the dispossession and denial at the heart of the problem. In 1993, he first voiced the possibility that Kurds could live peaceably as equal citizens of a politically transformed Turkey instead of seeking a separate state. He called a unilateral ceasefire and held indirect talks with President Turgut Özal—but, following Özal’s mysterious death on April 17, 1993, a new, bloody chapter was opened for the Kurds.
In 1998, during another unilateral cease-fire declared by Öcalan, Turkey threatened Syria with war over his presence in the country. To prevent conflict, Ocalan went to Europe in order to promote a political solution. But he was pushed out of Europe, too, and finally found himself in Kenya. On February 15, 1999 , he was abducted in a clandestine international operation and brought to Turkey.
“I almost want to say freedom is the goal of the universe.
I have often asked myself if the universe is not, in fact, in pursuit of freedom.”
— Abdullah ÖcaIan
CONDITIONS IN IMRALI PRISON
Ocalan’s rights have been violated from the moment he was captured. While Turkish authorities are directly responsible, international complicity plays an important role in maintaining these rights violations.
Extraordinary renditions conducted without judicial processes, like Ocalan’s kidnapping, are themselves contrary to international law.
Ocalan’s trial was condemned as unfair by human rights organizations and international courts. In 1999, Amnesty International found that “the trial against Abdullah Öcalan violated both national law and international standards” and called for a complete impartial and independent retrial. A 2005 European Court of Human Rights Decision decision ruled that his trial was not independent or impartial, that he was not promptly brought before a judge, and that his defense was not given enough time to prepare.
For years, Ocalan was the only prisoner on Imrali Island. Now, there are four others. He is regularly held incommunicado, barred from contact with the outside world for months or even years at a time. Prolonged isolation and solitary confinement are considered to be forms of torture under international law. They are violations of the U.N. Mandela Principles, devised to protect the rights of prisoners I .
In 2007 , it was reported that Ocalan had been poisoned in prison. A European laboratory confirmed the presence of toxic chromium and strontium in hair
1 . https://www.un.org/en/un-chronicle/nelson-mandela-rules-protecting-rights-persons-deprived-libertysamples2.
Kurds around the world protested demanding accountability, but the prison administration faced no consequences.
In 2008, Ocalan’s lawyers reported that Öcalan had been dragged by prison personnel to an adjoining room and forced to the ground by three persons while his cell was ravaged. When he protested against these brutal measures, he was explicitly threatened with death3. Once again, there was no accountability.
These human rights abuses are an issue of international concern.
The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture is tasked with monitoring prison conditions in Turkey and other European states. The Committee and other European institutions have regularly failed to hold Turkey responsible for its systemic violations of Turkish and international law in regards to Öcalan’s case.
The United States openly played a major role in Ocalan’s capture, and has helped Turkey cover up widespread human rights abuses in his subsequent trial and imprisonment. Antony Blinken — who served on U.S. President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council and is currently Secretary of State to President Joe Biden — said that “the United States was determined to bring Öcalan to justice. We provided all necessary assistance to Turkey. But we wanted him to have democratic rights, like everybody else. The judgment was carried out in an open and fair manner4.”
- https://www.freeocalan.org/articles/english/analysis-of-ocalan-intoxication-results-by-dr-kintz
- https://www.freeocalan.org/articles/english/ocalan-tortured-prison
- https ://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/aponun-teslim-emri-clintondan-38248135
A BRIEF SUMMARY OF MR. ABDULLAH ÖCALAN’S LEGAL STATUS
EXECUTION VERDICT
- Abdullah Öcalan has been held in imrall Island Prison since February 15, 1999, when he was abducted from Kenya and brought to Turkey. Öcalan was sentenced to death after a trial in imrall Island and his case was taken to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The Grand Court of the ECHR ruled on May 2, 2005 that Article 6 of the convention, regarding a fair trial, had been violated, and it established retrial as a remedy. However, this request was initially rejected on the grounds that a retrial was not possible for Mr. Öcalan due to the Turkish laws enacted for him at the time. But then, without any legal change, another court, without informing Mr. Öcalan’s lawyers, closed the file on the grounds that it had opened and reviewed the 17,000-page file and that a retrial would not lead to any change. In this way, the Turkish Government claimed that it was fulfilling the judgments of the ECtHR. Unfortunately, the COE Committee of Ministers, which is responsible for monitoring the implementation of ECtHR judgments, did not make any effort to counter this illegal manipulation and closed the file with a political decision, ruling that Turkey had fulfilled their judgment.
AGGRAVATED LIFE SENTENCE
- The death penalty imposed on Mr. Öcalan has been converted into an aggravated life sentence, which was introduced into Turkish law for the first time after the abolition of the death penalty in 2002. With this sentence, a new type of punishment was introduced, which obliged him to remain in severe isolation until his death, i.e. without the possibility of parole. All subsequent sentenced prisoners were also subject to this mechanism. The isolation and aggravated life sentence against Öcalan was also taken to the ECHR. On March 1 8, 2014, the Court ruled that both the conditions of isolation and the aggravated life sentence were violations of Article 3 of the ECHR, prohibiting torture. The court also found that the violation begins not at the moment of the verdict, but from the moment of its birth. And it underlined that every prisoner must have the hope of release. This judgment has been on the agenda of the Committee of Ministers of the COE after 7 years and continues to be monitored and is expected to be implemented. The Turkish Government, on the other hand, states that the aggravated life sentence will not be changed as it is regulated by law.
CONTINUOUS EXECUTION
- Öcalan was the only civilian on imrall Island until 2009. Since then, 5 inmates from other prisons were brought to the island. These prisoners were changed over time. As of today, apart from Mr. Öcalan, there are 3 prisoners in imrall Prison. The ECHR’s violation decision on March 18, 2014 on isolation covered the period between 1999 and 2009 and was defined as a violation of the prohibition of torture. After 2009, with the arrival of new prisoners, a new application was made to the ECHR as the isolation continued with the same severity. This application was filed in 201 1 on behalf of Mr. ÖcaIan and 5 prisoners. It has been 12 years since this application was made and all the processes related to this application have been exhausted and have reached the decision stage. However, the ECtHR has not yet made a decision on this case and there is no clarity as to when it will make a decision on this application.
NEW CASES
- Apart from this ongoing case at the ECtHR, there is another case filed against Greece at the ECtHR in 201 9, after the completion of the domestic legal process, upon the refusal to process Mr. Öcalan’s asylum application while he was in Greece and his illegal delivery to Turkey. This case is also ongoing.
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS DO NOT FULFILL THEIR DUTIES
- As the isolation deepened and family and lawyer visits were completely banned, an individual application for measures was also submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) in 2021. Taking into account the gravity of the situation, the OHCHR, in a letter dated September 6, 2022, requested the Turkish government to “put an end to the incommunicado detention of the applicants in accordance with Article 92 of the Committee’s Rules of Procedure and to allow the applicants immediate and unrestricted access to a lawyer of their choice.” However, the state and government authorities did not comply with the Committee’s request for this measure either. On the contrary, the government responded with new arbitrary family and guardian visits, telephone and lawyer bans. This application is still pending.
BAN ON FAMILY AND LAWYER
- From the date of Mr. Öcalan’s abduction to Turkey until today, numerous applications have been filed in Turkish domestic law regarding the conditions of isolation. It is not posSible to give the number and breakdown of these here. These legal initiatives are still ongoing. Twice a week, applications are made to the prison administration and the relevant prosecutor’s office requesting lawyer visits. However, these applications are not even answered. At the same time, applications are regularly made once a week for family meetings. For example, in 2022 alone, there were 98 requests for a lawyer meeting and 49 applications for a family meeting, which went unanswered.
The application for a family meeting is rejected due to the disciplinary punishment given to Öcalan and his friends for walking and chatting during sports hours. Öcalan and his friends first appeal these disciplinary penalties before the Execution Judge, but all applications are rejected. The appeals against these decisions are also rejected by the High Criminal Court without exception. Similarly, bans on lawyer visits every 6 months have become automatic. Lawyers are not informed about the disciplinary penalty that prevents family visit requests. Lawyers only learn about it in practice after the appeal period expires. Law yers are also excluded from other legal processes.
In total, it is possible to say the following about the domestic legal process. To date, not a single positive decision or result has been obtained in thousands of applications and files related to ÖcaIan in the domestic legal process, from the prison administration to the prosecutor’s office to the Constitutional Court. Without exception, all requests and applications have been rejected. Especially since 2021, the judiciary has not only rejected the requests, but has also turned into a part of the isolation mechanism by conducting this process without the knowledge of the lawyers and preventing their initiatives. Therefore, we cannot talk about a functioning domestic legal process in Turkey for Öcalan and his friends.
TURKEY DOES NOT APPLY DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL LAW
- By not implementing the judgments of the ECtHR and the UNHRC, domestic legal mechanisms in Turkey also break the influence of international legal mechanisms and render them dysfunctional. Unfortunately, the Turkish judicial system is not implementing and rendering dysfunctional hundreds of international judicial decisions, such as the Kavala and Demirtas decisions, based on the conclusions drawn from the Öcalan case. The island of imrall functions as a laboratory for the Turkish judicial and political process where all kinds of lawlessness are tested. The conclusions drawn here are used against everyone, especially dissidents living in Turkey.
PERPETUAL TORTURE
- Based on the facts stated above, we can say that Turkish domestic law is closed to Mr. Öcalan, and that it is even a means of concealing or providing legal cover for the isolation and torture practices. In this case, it is possible to interpret Mr. ÖcaIan’s legal situation in the light of the ECtHR Decisions as follows: Since 1999, Mr. Öcalan has been held for 25 years in an unfair trial, i.e. without an acceptable legal basis and under conditions considered as torture, and it is a requirement of international law and justice that he be released and free as a matter of his right to hope.