The CoE Secretariat General responded to the Kurdish doctors who sent letters to the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) Secretariat General and the CoE Secretariat General. The committee of doctors met with officials from the secretariat.

The doctors who are part of the Kurdish Academics Network had visited the hunger strikers in Strasbourg on March 2 and 24 before this meeting.

Dr. Mehmet Koroglu and Dr. Dersim Dagdeviren attended the meeting at the CoE Secretariat General. Dr. Dersim Dagdeviren spoke after the meeting and said they spoke about the hunger strikes, which was what they wrote about in their letter before.

Dr. Dagdeviren said they spoke about the critical stage the hunger strikers’ health is and added: “We told the officials that deaths could occur any time. We also voiced our views as doctors on the activists’ demands, as well as their health. We stressed that the demand the hunger strikers pose to end the isolation is a demand we all share.”

Dr. Dagdeviren pointed out that the CoE and the CPT are also in agreement regarding the isolation torture and added: “We reminded them that their own bylaws cite isolation as a method of torture.”

Dr. Dersim Dagdeviren said in the meeting they stressed that torture is a crime against humanity: “In the meeting we said the activists’ goal is to end the isolation imposed upon Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Ocalan and to have his family and lawyers visit him regularly.”

Dagdeviren said the officials told them that the CoE and the CPT are closely monitoring the issue and added that efforts regarding the activists’ demand continue still.