Kurdish People's Leader Öcalan continues to stay in total isolation in Imrali island.  The last meeting with his brother Mehmet was on 11 September 2016.

Öcalan's lawyers have been denied visit with their clients for 781 times so far with excuses such as bad weather or problems with the boat to the island. 

DBP Amed city co-chair, Naside Toprak, talked about the regime isolation. 

Indicating that there is no isolation regime in international law, Toprak said that Öclan has been systematically isolated for 19 years. 

In Imrali the Turkish state is implementing a particular regime to that prison, said Toprak, who added that no similar system can be found anywhere in the world. 

"This system - she said - is being implemented for 19 years on Kurdistan and the people of Turkey. This system aims firstly to break the bond with the society. Cameras watch Mr. Öcalan 24 hours a day, and he is denied newspapers, radios, telephone calls and visits creating a wall around him”.

Following the coup attempt on 15 July, Kurdish leader Öcalan has been subjected to even harder conditions, said Toprak. 

"The coup hardened condition on the Kurds of Turkey and Kurdistan and also in Imrali. - Toprak said - Under the shadow of the State of Emergency, the HDP co-chairs as well as thousands of deputies, municipal co-chairs and Kurdish politicians were arrested. The system imposed on the Kurdish leader has now spread across the whole of Turkey. The whole country is under severe isolation".

Toprak added: "Mr. Öcalan is not an ordinary person, he is the leader of the people of Kurdistan and millions of people follow his political ideas. The AKP government is afraid of Mr. Öcalan's thoughts because they speak of the Middle East”.

Toprak finally pointed out that it is “more than three years that Turkey has closed all ways of politics and peace. If talks were allowed with Mr Öcalan, everyone knows that in three hours Turkey and the Middle East would be back on the peace track. Therefore, - she added - it is a matter of emergency the end the isolation regime and open the dialogue path again”.

The BDP co-chair had criticism for the CPT, European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, that went to Imrali three years ago and “announced only years later the results of the report they had written on the visit. And this delay was to serve Turkey's demand. The CPT attitude is unacceptable and we think they should urgently prepare a new mission”.