Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç responded to DEM Party’s request for Abdullah Öcalan to be allowed to meet with journalists and politicians in İmralı, saying, “What needs to be done within the legal framework can be carried out.”
During a meeting with Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç on April 24, the İmralı Delegation of the DEM Party (Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party) requested that Abdullah Öcalan be allowed to have meetings in the İmralı Island Prison, where he has been incarcerated since 1999.
The Minister of Justice issued a statement following the DEM Party's request for the Kurdish leader to meet with individuals, journalists, and politicians he designates.
Tunç stated, “The regulations regarding how inmates in prisons can have meetings are already outlined in the law. What needs to be done within this legal framework can be carried out.”
The Minister of Justice also responded to a question from journalists regarding the “right to hope” and said, “There is no such situation or discussion.”
In response, DEM Party spokesperson Ayşegül Doğan posted the following on social media: “Dear Minister, regardless of the debate on the right to hope, your tone in this process is far from the constructive language we need and, unfortunately, has a poisonous effect. As a society, we expect you to use your representative power to establish justice. We need law and democratic consensus, not polemics.”
