Between 21-25 January Ibrahim Bilmez, solicitor at Asrin Law Office in Istanbul and lawyer of Abullah Ocalan, the imprisoned founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), was in London meeting with lawyers and MPs to discuss the case of Ocalan and the situation in Turkey.

Bilmez met with a number of MPs from the Labour Party, Scottish National Party, and Plaid Cymru. He delivered a briefing on the state of the judiciary in Turkey following the coup attempt of June 2016. He described how more than half of the judges and prosecutors in the country had been forced to resign following allegations of support for Fethullah Gulen, the cleric accused of orchestrating the coup attempt, now in exile in the United States. Further, he detailed the unlawful crackdown experienced by lawyers and politicians in recent years, with the unprecedented imprisonment of democratically elected representatives and MPs from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), as well of lawyers accused of supporting terrorists because of the clients they defend. Bilmez himself spent two and half years in prison.

Bilmez also extensively discussed the case of Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned in solitary confinement in Imrali Prison in the Marmara Sea, Turkey following his abduction from Nairobi, Kenya on 15 February 1999 in an international clandestine operation. Ocalan’s lawyers have been unable to meet with him since 2011, first prohibited by excuses from the Turkish state involving bad weather or problems with the boat used as transport to the island prison, and now expressly forbidden from visitation under the emergency law that had been in place since the 2016 coup attempt. There had been no contact with Ocalan or update regarding his condition for more than two years until earlier this month, when the Turkish state granted a brief meeting between Ocalan and his brother Mehmet on 12 January.

The meeting came after of a series of hunger strikes swept across Turkey and Europe. The hunger strikes are lead by Leyla Guven, an HDP MP of Hakkari who had been in prison since January 2018 following her outspoken criticism of the Turkish invasion of the city of Afrin in the Kurdish region of Northwestern Syria. Leyla Guven is now on her 82nd day of hunger strike, and she is joined by more than 250 political prisoners across Turkey, as well numerous individuals in Europe and the UK, who have followed Guven in declaring indefinite hunger strike. The demand of the hunger strikers is to lift the isolation imposed on Abdullah Ocalan, as well as all political prisoners in Turkey, and to restart the peace negotiation process to realise a political solution to the Kurdish question. The meeting between Ocalan and his brother is widely seen as an attempt by the Turkish state to appease the Kurdish population and end the hunger strikes. For this reason, Guven and the other hunger strikers have vowed to continue their hunger strikes, until the isolation imposed on Ocalan is genuinely lifted. Guven was released from prison on Friday 25 January, but has stated she will continue her hunger strike, as their demands still have not been met.

Bilmez also discussed the situation of Guven, who is a client of Asrin Law Office, and the hungers strikers, and stressed that the physical condition of Guven is at a critical point; on Monday 21 January Guven’s condition prevented her from visiting with her daughter. The MPs Bilmez met with expressed concern about the condition of Guven, as well of Imam Sis, a Kurd living in Newport, Wales who is also on indefinite hunger strike. Together they discussed strategies to submit questions to the UK foreign minister and propose motions to the Parliament Chambers.

During his visit, Ibrahim Bilmez was featured as the keynote speaker at a talk held at Cambridge University, and in a public forum event dedicated to the Freedom For Ocalan campaign held in Portcullis House in Parliament. The event was hosted by Francie Molloy MP – Sinn Fein, chaired by Elif Sarican, leader of the Kurdish Students Union UK, and featured speakers including Reimar Heider, spokesperson of the International Initiative “Freedom For Ocalan – Peace In Kurdistan”; Simon Dubbins, Director of International for UNITE the union; Gianni Tognoni, General Secretary of the Permanent People’s Tribunal; Dr. Thomas Jeffrey Miley, Lecturer in Political Sociology at Cambridge University; and Margaret Owen OBE, a distinguished human rights lawyer, alongside Bilmez. The event focused on the current situation in Turkey, the Ocalan case, and the hunger strikes lead by Leyla Guven. Speakers discussed the work that has been done, and that still needs to be done, to publicise the human rights violations committed by the Turkish state, the philosophy of the Kurdish freedom movement, and the status of the Kurdish-controlled Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (DFNS), more commonly known as Rojava. A full link to the public forum event can be found here.

In reflecting on the week, Bilmez concluded that colleagues in England were generally, “uninformed about the problems faced by lawyers [regarding] democratisation in Turkey.” Bilmez, however, had a positive impression of the week, describing it as “fruitful,” and stating further that “we may have created a sensitivity” to the issues in the individuals met with. Bilmez was hopeful about the response received in the meetings, particularly concerning the agreements to raise questions about the hunger strikes and the isolation of Ocalan. Bilmez said, “[such actions] could be really useful.”