The Kurdish National Congress (KNK) published an in-depth report about the prison condition of Abdullah Öcalan.

The KNK called on everyone to write to the Council of Europe, UN Secretary-General, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, parliaments, political parties and governments to act accordingly to demand that Mr. Öcalan is granted his human and legal rights denied for so long.

The report said: "While in prison, Mr. Öcalan has written numerous defense writings and submissions for domestic and European court cases, in which he has continued to search for answers to the major political questions of our time. Despite the harsh prison conditions and his complete isolation, he has been able to formulate a new political philosophy that he terms the “democratic nation” and “democratic confederalism”, which looks for ways not to create new borders but to liberate life and allow for a plurality of identities. Some of these defense writings have been translated into several languages and published under the title Prison Writings. Mr. Öcalan is the author of more than sixty books on a wide range of topics, from religion, philosophy, and gender liberation, to the arts, politics, and the issue of national liberation."

The report added: "Abdullah Öcalan's existence has always been a thorn in the eye of Turkey. With the help of European states and NATO, Turkey has pursued a death-for-time strategy. The European states support this strategy, because Öcalan got the Kurds out of the deadlock of the Lausanne Treaty on its 100th anniversary on July 24, 2023. The treaty declared the Kurds non-existent and made them fair game for the hunt of the Turkish, Iraqi, Syrian and Iranian states.

Now aged 74, the Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan has spent 24 years in prison, almost a third of his life. That is a grave injustice inflicted on him, but Mr. Öcalan’s spirit and status remain undiminished. On the contrary, if anything, Mr. Öcalan has grown in significance and his ideas have become even more relevant today. Millions of Kurds across the world regard Abdullah Öcalan as their political leader as they struggle against national, cultural and physical oppression by the Turkish state. He has also brought hope for a better world to people of all backgrounds through political ideas that have demonstrated their potential to transform society. "

The Imrali Prison Island

The report continued: "UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on January 13, 2023 that the rule of law is at grave risk of becoming a “rule of lawlessness’’. Shortly after his abduction on 15 February 1999, Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan said the same thing. Both his abduction and the 24 years of his imprisonment on the prison island Imrali embody this “rule of lawlessness”. Whoever wants to understand what this means does not need to look far. The 24 years of Mr. Öcalan's imprisonment makes it immediately clear. For this reason, no one in Kurdish politics talks about the Imrali Prison Island, but rather about the Imrali system. The Imrali system is the center of the “rule of lawlessness”. In its peculiar modus operandi, characterised essentially by the permanent suspension of the system of rights borne out of international and domestic law, the Imrali system comprises the crystallised embodiment of Ankara’s perspective on handling the Kurdish issue.

Imrali Prison Island is part of the Turkish state but has its own extraordinary status. The Imrali F Type Prison is a closed maximum security prison off the Turkish coast in the Sea of Marmara. It was built in February 1999 specifically for the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan, overriding both national and international law, and operates on the basis of a special status with its own special practices. Within the framework of the so-called intensified prison regime, several people have been detained in prison for a long time under extraordinary isolation conditions: the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan for 24 years, and Hamili Yildirim, Ömer Hayri Konar, and Veysi Aktaş for eight years."

Pratice in Imrali is Abuse of the International Law According to the UN

The statement said: "The banning of lawyer visits to Imrali openly violates the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules). According to this set of rules, states must guarantee the basic rights of prisoners without regard to their identity or the nature of their sentence.

This is also a violation of the rights and privileges of lawyers as set out in the United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, in particular Basic Principles 8 and 16. Basic Principle 8 states clearly: “All arrested, detained or imprisoned persons shall be provided with adequate opportunities, time and facilities to be visited by and to communicate and consult with a lawyer, without delay, interception or censorship and in full confidentiality. Such consultations may be within sight, but not within the hearing, of law enforcement officials.” Similarly, Basic Principle 16 states that Governments shall ensure that lawyers are able to perform all of their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference and area able to travel to consult with their clients freely, both within their own country and abroad."

Arbitrariness and Solitary Confinement

Long-term isolation and solitary confinement are intended to break prisoners psychologically and physically through, among other things, sensory deprivation. Such conditions of detention are referred to as “white torture”. For eleven years, Mr. Öcalan was the only prisoner on Imrali. Now, during the daily walks in the small prison yard with the other three detainees, Mr. Öcalan is closely observed. If he talks to the others, a disciplinary punishment can be arbitrarily imposed on him. In 2018, he was given a twenty-day ban on leaving his cell. Also in 2018, a disciplinary investigation was initiated against him for talking while playing volleyball and basketball with other detainees, and he was sentenced to "deprivation of visitation for three months" on the grounds that "he turned his sports activity into a chatting activity". In Imrali, punishments are given according to the political conjuncture. If the Kurdish movement outside challenges the Turkish state, Mr. Öcalan is punished for it. For example, when he speaks during the daily walks with the other three prisoners, he is banned from seeing them with the pretext that he was "spreading propaganda to members of the organization".

Turkish Law is Suspended in Imrali

The report continued: "Article 59 of Turkish Law No. 5275 stipulates that detainees and convicts have the right to see their lawyers during working hours, i.e. five days a week. Article 25 of the same law states that convicts subject to aggravated life imprisonment can be visited by their families every 15 days.

In line with these regulations, the family members and lawyers have regularly submitted written applications to the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is in charge of Imrali Prison, throughout 2022, requesting permission to visit Mr. Öcalan and their other clients. The same applications were also made to the Imrali Prison Administration through the prosecutor’s office. The total of 49 applications for family visits made to both authorities in 2022 were not responded to in any way. As a result, not a single face-to-face contact between Mr. Öcalan and his family members could take place. This also includes those applications that were filed on the occasion of public holidays. Similarly, a total of 98 applications for lawyer visits made to both authorities throughout the year were left unanswered, with the result that not a single contact between Abdullah Öcalan and his lawyers could take place. From 2021 to 2023, 274 applications for lawyer visits and 118 applications for family visits to the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and the Imrali Island Prison Directorate were to no avail."

The Imrali System is Purely Political

The report added: "The fact that Turkey is moving so quickly away from the principle of the rule of law is connected to the lawlessness in Imrali. The isolation on Imrali is synonymous with the unresolved Kurdish question. The failure to resolve the Kurdish question is moving Turkey further and further away from democracy. Both what is happening in Imrali and the continued lack of rights in Turkey are unfortunately now regarded by many people as normal.

Mr. Cemil Bayik, co-chair of the KCK Executive Council, offered a clear description of Imrali by saying: "This isolation has nothing to do with justice. It is purely political. When the struggle increases, the Turkish state relaxes the isolation a little. But when the struggle is weak, complete isolation is reinstated. Therefore, everyone must understand that it is their responsibility to stand against complete isolation and against genocide. [...]"

No Sign of Life for 28 Months

The permission to speak on the phone was granted to Mr. Öcalan for the first time on April 27, 2020. He was also allowed to talk to his brother, Mehmet Öcalan, on the phone on March 25, 2021, after public concern over his health sparked by allegations on social media. Mr. Öcalan's 2021 phone call with his brother was interrupted and stopped after a few minutes. Since then, there has been no access to confirmed information as to his health and well-being. The last time Öcalan's family members were allowed to visit him was in March 2020. He hasn't been able to meet his lawyers since August 2019.

A New Dimension – Life Threat to Öcalan

In an interview on July 8, Executive Council Member of the Kurdistan Democratic Communities Union (KCK) Mr. Sabri Ok said on the Kurdish TV Channel Sterk TV that threatening letters had recently been sent to Abdullah Öcalan anonymously via the Imrali prison administration. In addition to the rule of lawlessness in Imrali, these serious threats constitute a new level of psychological terror against Mr. Öcalan. This issue has therefore caused great concerns among us and the millions of Kurds around the world who support Abdullah Öcalan.

As Mr. Ok stated, the recent threats were conveyed through anonymous letters checked and passed on by both the Turkish state and the Imrali prison administration. According to Mr. Ok, the letters included messages such as: ”We will administer a poison that will lead to your demise. Even the insects that feed on your corpse will be poisoned and perish”. This happened at a time when Mr. Öcalan has had no means of communication with the outside world for about 28 months.

Cause for Major Concern

The report said: "The most recent threats have to be taken very seriously since Mr. Öcalan was poisoned before on the island in March 2007. This was later proven by several international laboratories, including the ChemTox laboratory in Strasbourg, based on a hair sample of Mr. Öcalan. The test result showed that the level of poisonous chromium and strontium in Mr. Öcalan’s hair was much higher than normal.

Urgent Action is Needed

In light of the seriousness of the recent threats to Mr. Öcalan’s life, we call on the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the EU and the UN to organize an urgent ad hoc mission to visit Abdullah Öcalan. If this is not possible, we call on these institutions to put legal, political and diplomatic pressure on their member state Turkey to allow for an immediate visit by the lawyers or the family of Mr. Öcalan."