The International Conference on “Political Prisoners in Turkey: Seeking the Path of Freedom and Peace” was held in Brussels on Friday and focused on the topic of Kurdish political prisoners, with particular emphasis on the absence of any communication from Abdullah Öcalan, for the past 3 years.

The conference also explored potential political resolutions to the issue commonly referred to as the ‘Kurdish Question’.

The conference was attended by eminent scholars, union delegates, political parties, advocates for human rights, legal professionals, local council members, and legislators. They unequivocally asserted that "the unlawful and cruel solitary confinement endured by Kurdish political detainees, including Mr. Öcalan, constitutes torture and is not tolerable."

As a result, all these personalities and representatives of institutions declared their unequivocal support for the ‘Freedom for Öcalan: A Political Solution to the Kurdish Question’ campaign launched on October 10, 2023.

In the final declaration and recommendations, the participants wrote that they are "more gravely concerned with Öcalan's health, welfare, and safety than ever before. The continuous and uninterrupted solitary confinement endured by Mr. Öcalan for a period of three years poses an immense threat to his physical and mental well-being. Therefore, we lack any knowledge regarding Öcalan's current situation, other for the fact that he has recently faced ‘disciplinary procedures’ preventing him from meeting his attorneys or family under false pretenses and has purportedly received death threats."

The declaration also "discussed further steps" and listed the following recommendations:

"1. The prison isolation of Mr. Öcalan must be lifted immediately and the Council of Europe must intervene urgently to ensure that he meets with his family and lawyers.

2. In light of the absence of news from Mr. Öcalan and his friends for 3 years and the seriousness of the latest possible threats to his life, we call on the General Secretariat and Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the EU, and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture to organise an urgent ad-hoc mission to visit Abdullah Öcalan on Imrali Island Prison.

3. Further efforts should be made to publicise the worrying situation in the international and local news media.

4. Trade unions should consider a one-minute general strike at an appropriate time to draw attention to the situation of Turkey’s political prisoners.

5. Lawyers should contact the Bar Associations of which they are members to convey their concerns, and then also pass those on to the Ministries of Justice in their respective countries and to their legal counterparts in Turkey.

6. Initiatives should be taken to bring the issue before the agenda of all national parliaments, especially the EU and the EC.

7. All economic and military aid to the Turkish government, which violates its own domestic law and international law, should be immediately suspended. As these weapons of war are used to commit daily war crimes against the Kurdish people in Kurdistan.

8. As stated by the European Court of Human Rights in its judgment of 18 March 2014 in ÖCALAN v. TURKEY (No.2), legal amendments should be made to provide conditions for a conditional release. Whereby, Mr. Öcalan should be discharged under conditions that will allow him to play a pivotal role in finding a just, peaceful, and democratic political solution to Turkey's decades-long occupation and subjugation of the Kurdish people."