AMED - Lawyer Adile Salman from Amed Bar Association stated that the prisoners on hunger strike expect support from all democratic organizations and the public for their demand for "freedom for Abdullah Öcalan".

 

PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has not been allowed to see his family and lawyers for 33 months in İmralı Island Prison, is facing isolation practices. Political prisoners in prison supported the campaign launched at the international level on October 10 with the motto "Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, democratic solution to the Kurdish issue" against the isolation, which is a reflection of the policies of deadlock on the Kurdish issue, with the alternating hunger strike they started on November 27. This action in prisons has reached its 19th day.

 

Amed(Diyarbakır) Bar Association Human Rights Center Prison Monitoring Commission Chairman Atty. Adile Salman shared the situation of the prisoners on hunger strike she visited.

 

'IMRALI IS AN AREA WHERE LAW DOES NOT APPLY'

 

Stating that, in accordance with the law, all prisoners in prisons, regardless of whether they are detained or convicted, must be consulted by a lawyer and their family, Lawyer Adile Salman said: "There is no reason to prevent this right according to the legislation.

Imrali Island Prison is 'an area where the law does not operate'. There is no legal explanation for not meeting lawyers and family for such a long period of time. It is 'worrying' that all applications and requests made at this point were left unanswered by the Ministry of Justice, judicial bodies and administrative authorities."

 

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS ARE PARTNERS IN THIS CRIME

 

Stating that all applications made in a democratic legal system should be answered positively or negatively, Salman said: “There is a situation where both family and lawyer applications are often left unanswered. This reveals that the isolation imposed is actually aimed at the demands of the Kurdish people. We are talking about a form and area that is not in compliance with both national and international law. International institutions have repeatedly stated that isolation is a human rights violation. In its reports, CPT stated that the isolation imposed was included in the 'prohibition of ill-treatment' and 'torture'; however, the functionality of international institutions is blocked at the point of relations between countries. As we constantly say, the fact that the countries that are seen as apostles of democracy do not take a clear stance on this point, and the CPT is still silent and does not work on this point, is a state of being complicit in the crime of isolation imposed on Turkey. This shows that all countries have a share in the implementation of the isolation." 

 

'THE IMPLEMENTED ISOLATION WILL FOR NO SOLUTION'

 

Stating that there must be contact with İmralı for the solution of the Kurdish issue, Salman said: "This is a situation that has emerged from previous practical experiences. It will not be enough to talk only about the legal situation. On the basis of the imposed isolation, there is also a will to not have a solution to this situation."

 

Salman drew attention to the fact that the international institutions involved in the "Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, democratic solution to the Kurdish issue" campaign are not acceptable and that they want him to take a direct part in a peace process.

 

Focusing on the rotating hunger strikes that started in prisons on November 27 in support of the campaign, Salman said: "The hunger strikes are a 'form of protest' in the legal sense. The prisoners went on hunger strikes in many periods when the law was not enforced in Turkey. The acceptable demands of the prisoners should be met quickly before their health conditions reach a bad stage."

 

THE DEMANDS OF PRISONERS

 

Salman stated that Amed Bar Association, İHD, ÖHD, MED TUHAD-FED and TUAY-DER formed delegations in order to monitor these activism processes initiated by the prisoners in prisons and to detect violations of rights, and they frequently visited the prisoners in prison.

 

Noting that the prisoners they met had expectations from the public, Salman said: "The prisoners stated that they started an action against the Imrali isolation system and directly for the freedom of Mr. Abdullah Öcalan. They emphasized that if this process continues to be ignored, they can increase the degree of action, before the process evolves into a different situation. They expressed their request for support from the forces pro-freedom, peace and democracy, and from all segments of society that stand against lawlessness."

 

THERE IS PRESSURE ON THOSE WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE STRIKE

 

Referring to the rights violations and neglects that they learned about during their visits, Salman said: “All prisoners who start hunger strikes are given disciplinary punishments on the grounds that they started hunger strikes. The requests of prisoners who request transfer to İmralı Island Prison are not responded to in any way. Letters written to Mr. Abdullah Öcalan are being confiscated. The letters that prisoners write to each other are either censored or their right to communication is violated by being directly confiscated. Many letters written to democratic institutions are not released and are confiscated without being processed directly by the administration. As reflected in the press, there are also statements that we will line up the prisoners in prisons and apply the Imrali isolation system here as well. The prisoners also stated that the prison administrations had verbal pressure on them."

 

'PRISONERS ARE TAKEN INTO SINGLE CELLS'

 

Salman also shared the information that when a prisoner who started a strike in Erzincan Women's Closed Prison was asked to be placed in a single cell by 50 guards, all the women in the ward were beaten. Salman continued: “Thereupon, female prisoners reacted and announced that they started a strike. In many prisons, prisoners who decide to go on strike are placed in solitary cells, left without a companion, compensated for salt, lemon, sugar and food consumed during the strike by giving them much less than the subsistence price, do not provide vitamins in any way, do not allow them to do canteen shopping, leave prisoners without communication by throwing them into cells, physically there are also applications to weaken it further.”

 

Finally, Salman stated that the prisoners who continued their hunger strike asked democratic institutions and the public to support the action process by reminding them that "We love life so much that we would die for it."

 

MA / Müjdat Can