İSTANBUL -  United Revolutionary Party Chairman Elif Torun Öneren said that the isolation on PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan has taken away all freedoms of the peoples of Turkey, especially the freedoms of expression and thought.

 

PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been held under heavy isolation conditions for 22 years in İmralı Type F High Security Closed Prison, has not been allowed to meet with his lawyers since August 7, 2019. In addition to the lawyer ban, Öcalan is not allowed to meet with his family. Öcalan had a telephone conversation with his brother Mehmet Öcalan for the first time on April 27, 2020, and for the second time on March 25, 2020, due to the growing public concerns about him. Mehmet Öcalan announced that his second meeting was interrupted.

 

While the isolation on Öcalan is deepening by the day, racist attacks targeting Kurds have also increased. United Revolutionary Party Chairman Elif Torun Öneren evaluated the isolation on Öcalan and the racist attacks against Kurds.

 

A PERIOD JUST LIKE THE 90'S

 

Pointing out that isolation, which is a violation of basic human rights, is also a "crime against humanity", Öneren emphasized that isolation is not just practiced in prisons today. Öneren said that the peoples of Turkey, whose freedom of expression, thought and all other freedoms have been taken away, are kept in total isolation and drew attention to what happened after the so-called "peace process". Öneren said, “In the past, a peace process was started in which the political power's will and active role was implemented. Even though this process was a breathe for a short time, we entered a period similar to the 90s with the institutionalization of fascism right after it.” 

 

THE ORGANIZATION GROUND OF FASCISM

 

Pointing out that Öcalan showed everyone that peace, a brotherly and equal life is possible during the times when the doors of İmralı were open, Öneren reminded that conflicts also decreased during these processes. Noting that the AKP government approached this process in a conjunctural way to prepare an environment conducive to the institutionalization of fascism, Öneren said, “Despite all the manipulations in this process, the bridges established between the peoples made the ground of sovereignty turbulent. The meeting of the working class, socialists, women, LGBTI+s and other rising dynamics of struggle with the Kurdish people has deformed the organizational ground of fascism.”

 

'THE ENEMY LAW'

 

Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), Society and Legal Studies Foundation (TOHAV), Human Rights Association (İHD) and Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) have applied to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe regarding the aggravated life imprisonment given to PKK Leader Öcalan and the detainees Hayati Kaytan, Emin Gurban and Civan Boltan for them to take the 'violation decision' of the e European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) into agenda urgently.

 

Focusing on this application, Öneren said, “The approach of the imperialist states regarding the Kurdish question or state policy towards revolutionary prisoners have never been in favor of the peoples. Decisions or statements of condemnation of the EU are nothing more than interstate diplomatic relations. Aggravated life sentences should be considered within the scope of the enemy law. Those who give these sentences will be tried before the people."

 

RACIST ATTACKS

 

Saying that AKP continues to step up all kinds of oppression, racism, fascist repression and hate speech, in order to survive, Öneren continued as follows: “These attacks are the burning of villages, forced displacements, torturing people, murders and disappearances that were practiced in Kurdistan in the 90s. It has continuity with its policies of kidnapping, threat and spying to the present. The pro-government media legitimized the policy of impunity in the cases with the Kurds with all its ideological means, including the judiciary and the executive. Supported by these rhetorics and impunity, the racists increased their attacks on the Kurdish people and started massacres. Recently, the murder of Deniz Poyraz in HDP İzmir Provincial Organization, the murders of 7 members of a Kurdish family in Konya, attacks on Kurdish seasonal workers, hunting for Kurds with guns in the coast line hit by wildfires are the result of this discourse. Speeches fueling hatred cause these attacks to increase and return to us as massacres.”

 

A PART OF THE CHAOS

 

Underlining that all this is a part of the chaos that is intended to be created, Öneren said, "The racists who started the hunt for Kurds once again say to the Kurds, 'Kneel down, surrender, or I will destroy you'. With these attacks, which developed as a part of the special war tactics, they want to make the fascist system dominate, to block and stop the social opposition of the loud Kurdish opposition, the revolutionaries and the women and the LGBTQI.”

 

THE STANCE OF THE OPPOSITION

 

Öneren criticized that the stance of opposition parties other than the HDP, in the face of the events, is not much different from the government.

 

‘THE ONLY SOLUTION…’

 

Stating that the language used by the opposition is a language that feeds the the government's hate speech and triggers racism, Öneren emphasized that the only solution for the peoples is to unite in a common struggle against fascism, and to establish the power of the working class and oppressed peoples. We are under a total attack. The solution for the revolutionaries is not to pick the better of the worst."

 

MA / Ferhat Çelik