In a written statement on Friday, KCDK-E Co-Chairs said: “Turkey wants to break the will of the Kurdish people by maintaining an absolute isolation on Öcalan. It is obvious that the Turkish state is blocking democratic rights and freedoms in Turkey through its genocidal policies.”

The statement continued:

“The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) is not doing its job, nor responding to the repeated calls made by us. The CPT is responsible for monitoring all developments in the İmralı but does not fulfil its duties. As a result of the resistance of the Kurdish people and their friends, the CPT and the Council of Europe admitted that the Imralı prison is a torture system and should be reformed. However, no reform has been introduced so far and there has been no news from Öcalan for the last 22 months. All this stems from the silence and failure of the CPT, the Council of Europe and other relevant institutions to do their job.

Although the CPT has visited the Imrali prison recently, we do not know whether its officials met Öcalan or not, and we have no information about his health and safety. The CPT and the Council of Europe are responsible for the lack of information.

Our actions to embrace Öcalan will continue uninterrupted until his lawyers meet him and make a statement to the public.

On this basis, we will hold a sit-in in Strasbourg between January 23-25, when the Council of Europe sessions will be held. Our goal is to urge the Council of Europe to press Turkey for a meeting between Öcalan and his lawyers.

Our three-day action will be attended by co-chairs, politicians, artists, European friends, representatives of Kurdistan faith institutions and parties, and representatives of the Union of Forces. A mass rally will be held on the last day.

We call for our people’s broad participation in the sit-in action that will take place on January 23-25.”

The sit-in will be held every day between 10:00 and 14:00.  The address is: Avenue de l'Europe 67000 Strasbourg.