Former lawmaker of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Yiğitalp emphasised that the government disrespects the country’s laws. “We have a moral responsibility and we should organize to raise awareness,” she said.

Sibel Yiğitalp served as the 25th and 26th Term HDP’s Amed Deputy and the Human Rights Presidency Council member of the Turkish Assembly. Currently, she lives abroad as a political exile. Yiğitalp said that Turkey is the first country in Europe in terms of the number of prisons and prisoners and underlined that 18 new prisons would be added to 384 prisons this year, and 40 more until 2024.

Yiğitalp reminded that the release of at least 100 Kurdish prisoners has been postponed. She underlined that 7 sick prisoners lost their lives in the last months of 2021. “Even when we look at how prisoners die, how their bodies are removed from prison and how they are buried, we can see that there is a certain policy pursued by the government and we cannot say that these deaths are normal.”

Yiğitalp noted that seriously ill prisoners are left for dead and later “found dead”. “If a prisoner who is under surveillance 24 hours a day by cameras and subjected to systematic violence and psychological pressure is found dead, it means that he/she has been killed. The rights of seriously ill prisoners, including the right to be treated and the right to spend their last days outside, are suspended and their death is thus speeded up. Afterwards, confidentiality decisions and other reasons are cited in order not to give information about their situations.”

HATRED FOR KURDS CONTINUE IN PRISONS

Yiğitalp stated that the ill-treatment against senior Kurdish politician Aysel Tuğluk, who remains in prison despite being seriously ill, shows the Kurdish hostility of the AKP-MHP government. “The current government considers the prisoners as hostages, attacks and kills Kurdish prisoners following every Kurdish resistance. The state authorities do not even provide funeral vehicles. This is a practice far beyond the law of the enemy. The Turkish authorities know no limits when it comes to lawlessness. We have a moral responsibility and we should organize to raise awareness,” Yiğitalp concluded.