Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan has been prevented from meeting with his lawyers since July 27, 2011 with excuses like “the coaster is in repair”, or “bad weather”.

Öcalan’s lawyer Newroz Uysal spoke to ANF about the aggravated isolation and said, “We are facing the most dangerous 3 years in the 20 year history of the isolation.”

“THEY WANT US TO GET USED TO THE ISOLATION"

Uysal said they haven’t had any contact with Öcalan for years and stressed that this level of isolation is unprecedented in the world. Uysal said the law in Imrali is a law of torture and added: “With the declaration of the State of Emergency after July 15 and the Statutory Decree (KHK) issued for Imrali, they implemented the isolation and torture. 18 years of isolation descended into torture after July 15. A state of emergency has been in place for 18 years, and this method of torture has always trampled the law. They want to disregard the law and get society used to the isolation.”

“ISOLATION IS ALSO A CONCEPT OF WAR”

Lawyer Newroz Uysal added:

“Aggravating the isolation and the constant development of the isolation system is also a concept of war. The insistence on the isolation is part of the state’s insistence in the dirty politics of war against the Kurdish people and the Freedom Movement. The government is afraid of Mr. Öcalan’s ideas. When Mr. Öcalan’s ideas are implemented, Turkey will be democratized, the chaos in the Middle East will end and Mr. Öcalan’s ideas will be discussed throughout the country. The state sees this and continues to deepen the isolation, as well as resorting to all sorts of policies of war. 

“INTERNATIONAL LAW BECOMES PART OF THE SYSTEM OF TORTURE”

The state implements all its policies over an opposition to the society’s values and the will of the peoples of Kurdistan. That is why they reject all our appeals to visit Imrali with empty excuses. We the lawyers appeal to visit every week, and object to the rejections. Despite all our appeals to the ECHR and the CPT, under the Council of Europe, there is no development and the institutions in question legitimize the torture with their stance. When it comes to Imrali, even international law gets stuck, and that turns into becoming a partner to the Turkish state’s system of torture. This isolation is not implemented just in Turkey, looking deep into the matter, it can be seen that this isolation is implemented in the international arena as well. And that has come about with the ECHR ruling.”