As the aggravated isolation of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı Island continues, Kurds protest the isolation in European countries and other parts of the world. The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), the European Council (EC) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg were the main sites of protest demos.

The European Kurdish Women’s Movement (TJK-E) held a series of protests with the motto "Women protesting for their Leaders and freedom” and “Freedom for Öcalan, status for Kurdistan” in front of the CPT, EC and ECHR in Strasbourg. The protestors demanded an end to the isolation of Öcalan and called upon the CPT to visit İmralı as soon as possible.

Hundreds of women gathered in front of the EC in Strasbourg this morning and formed a human chain until the CPT building. HDP Parliamentarian Dilek Öcalan, KJA Coordination member Ceylan Bağrıyanık, Melanie Tsagouris from the France Communist Party, France Kurdistan Association Co-President Sylview Jan, NAV-DEM Co-President Fatoş Göksungur, TJK-E representatives, Clotilde Farroux from the Kobanê Women’s Collective and Laura Restrepo from the women’s committee that had visited Cizre participated in the protest.

'ISOLATION OF KURDISH PEOPLE AND THE OPPRESSED'

HDP Urfa Parliamentarian Dilek Öcalan spoke during the protest and recalled that the ceasefire began during the Newroz celebration in Amed in 2013. Öcalan noted that no clashes broke out for 2 years after this celebration, but the war restarted in 2015. HDP MP noted that Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan was the person who worked the most for the negotiations during the ceasefire, however the Erdoğan government knocked over the negotiation table and restarted the war. She said that Abdullah Öcalan has not been able to meet with his relatives and lawyers as well as the members of the İmralı Committee since 2015, and the isolation of Öcalan meant the isolation of Kurdish people and the oppressed.

‘CPT MUST INTERVENE IMMEDIATELY’

In her speech, Dilek Öcalan stated that the isolation of Öcalan constituted a constitutional crime and meant a violation of individual rights, law and democracy. Dilek Öcalan called upon the CPT to intervene immediately and send an independent committee to İmralı in order to investigate the mistreatment and torture of Abdullah Öcalan. Lastly, Dilek Öcalan noted that the CPT’s lack of intervention would mean that the committee was turning a blind eye to the issue, and said that the negotiations in Turkey should not resume from where they were left off but with the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan.