HDP Bitlis deputy Mizgin Irgat spoke to ANF about the situation of Kurdish Leader Abdullah Öcalan.

Irgat emphasized that the heavy regime applied in İmralı is torture. Noting that MPs have not been able to meet Öcalan since 2011, Izgat underlined that the right to see family and lawyers cannot be taken away from prisoners, no matter the circumstances.

Irgat noted that it was unacceptable for the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) to publish the Imrali report 2 years after their visit.

According to Irgat, the report was published with the approval of the government and this clearly arises both suspicion and the doubt of manipulation in the public opinion.

Irgat reminded after the fake military coup of 16 July 2016, prisons have been subjected to a heavy reduction and lifting of rights. The HDP MP asked why the CPT did not feel to go back to Imrali to check conditions there, while it had gone to other prisons.

Irgat emphasized that it is important to rise the voice against the continuous arbitrary violations of all rights in Imrali. She pointed out that the CPT report is weak and shows many lacunas. The MP reminded that "Mr. Ocalan is not an ordinary convict, and the isolation applied to Imrali shows that the State has returned to its policy of denial and destruction of all codes”. This policy is carried out to erase Kurdish people and their status, something the Turkish state has been doing since the beginning of the Republic.

The HDP MP stated that the hopes of peace and democracy created during negotiations were crashed by this return to a policy of denial.

The conditions in İmralı were never good, said MP Irgat, underlining that Mr Ocalan’s lawyers are faced with extraordinary searches and their rights are constantly violated during visits.

All meetings in Imrali were recorded despite the law stating that the lawyer-client meeting must enjoyed discretion and privacy. Now this illegality has been applied to all prisons, after the establishing of the OHAL (emergency state). “Unfortunately said the HDP deputy - Mr Ocalan has never enjoyed his rights and he has been constantly subjected to an unprecedented regime of isolation”.

Mizgin Irgat pointed out to the MHP-AKP alliance aimed at increase the anti-Kurdish politics beyond the country borders.

She said that the AKP government always approached the Kurdish question in a very opportunistic way: "If the AKP needed to get power then it started to talk about the need to solve the Kurdish question, but when it felt strong it went back to its policy of denial”.

The MP ended by reiterating that indeed the Kurdish question and its solution is the most important issue in the country.