HDK Co-spokespersons and Executive Council issued a written statement and called on the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) to inspect Öcalan’s situation and inform the public to reduce public concerns for Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s health and safety. The statement also warned the Ministry of Justice and the Government to end the absolute isolation conditions Öcalan has been subjected to and remove the illegal obstacles in the way of his lawyers and family visiting.

“The fact that Mr. Öcalan’s meetings with the HDP İmralı Committee and his lawyers have been obstructed with ridiculous and hardly believable excuses since April 2015 when the solution and negotiation process was ended by President Erdoğan has been a source of concern for his health and safety. But the news stories that claimed Mr. Öcalan was among the targets of the coup and that an armed group was caught while they were preparing for an attack on İmralı during the July 15 coup attempt has expanded and deepened these concerns,” reads the statement and goes on to say the Ministry of Justice’s statement that “There are no problems” has done little to alleviate the concerns.

The statement also pointed out that, according to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Ministry of Justice is responsible for “detaining a person under conditions that comply with human dignity and in executing the measures, not subjecting a person to suffering and hardship more intense than what is inherently present in detention” and continues:

“But the Ministry has shown that they are set on violating the Convention by continuing the isolation imposed upon Öcalan and leaves the answers to the questions on his health and safety in the dark.

As the fact that the personal safety of the President, members of government and army commanders are under threat has been repeated numerous times during and after the July 15 coup attempt, it is logical to assume that much bigger threats against Mr. Öcalan are still in place.

The most defining condition that led to the July 15 coup attempt is the ending of the Solution Process and the war that is imposed upon the Kurdish people. For all governments which will truly take permanent and definitive action against coups, it is imperative to start with taking precautions to end the war. In this framework, the value of Mr. Öcalan’s continued warnings throughout the negotiations process that “the weakening of the process will strengthen the coup mechanism” must have been understood once more.

We want to point out again as the Peoples’ Democratic Congress that in order to stop the war that feeds the coup and to return to the negotiations, ending the isolation of Mr. Öcalan is the first and most important step on the way to peace.

The most important way to swiftly eliminate the institutions outside of democracy and the dominations they create is to give the function he had in the democratisation of this country back to Mr. Öcalan and preparing the conditions for the evolution of the dialogue process to an actual negotiations process. We will continue to warn the state and the government on this matter.

We have observed that the “Freedom for Öcalan Watch” demonstrations launched by the people have played both a warning and a protective role, and we declare that we will spend our efforts on actualizing this urgent action plan on everywhere possible and on every possible aspect.

We call on all democratic forces, all groups against wars and coups in Turkey to reconsider that Öcalan’s health, safety and freedom are of key importance for peace and solution, and take action in fighting the massacrist, destructive, denialist mindset against the Kurdish people.”