ISTANBUL - DEM Party AK Representative Faik Yağızay stated that in his meeting with CPT officials, the "cooperation" response given by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding İmralı was brought to the agenda and they received the answer: "A general statement was made. It does not mean that the CPT is in cooperation with the isolation issue." .

 

The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), an independent monitoring body of the Council of Europe, is the only international institution authorized to go to İmralı Island. The CPT did not announce the report on its visit to Imrali in 2022, despite the passage of time. The CPT attributes this situation to "the lack of permission from Turkey"; however, the CPT has the authority to make statements regarding countries that do not comply with the recommendations. It is noteworthy that although there has been no news from Abdullah Öcalan for 34 months, there has been no statement from the CPT. This situation is criticized by legal organizations and human rights advocates as "silent cooperation".

 

People's Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) European Council Representative Faik Yağızay, who holds frequent meetings with the CPT, evaluated the absolute isolation in İmralı and the CPT's attitude towards it.

 

WHAT DID THEY SPEAK IN THE LAST MEETING?

 

Stating that they have been holding meetings with CPT officials for a long time, Yağızay said: "The violations in İmralı are the main agenda of the meetings. There are two parliamentarians and two substitute members in the Council of Europe, of which Turkey is a member, in our meetings with parliamentarians and the European Council, we are working to solve the Kurdish issue democratically and through dialogue. We are trying to create more friends to make the Kurdish issue visible. We organize conferences on this issue. We often organize bilateral meetings. We meet with rapporteurs of European institutions about what should be taken into consideration during the preparation of reports."

 

Yağızay shared that they last met with CPT on December 4. Yağızay said: "The answer given by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the question asked by DEM Party MP Nevroz Uysal Aslan about İmralı, 'There is close cooperation with the CPT', was brought up in the last meeting. As far as we can see, the ministry made a general statement regarding the conditions of prisons. It said that it is in close cooperation with international institutions, especially the CPT. This is a general statement and in our opinion, the CPT is somehow responsible for Abdullah Öcalan. It does not mean that he cooperated with the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan. "

 

Yağızay said: "In addition, we asked the CPT why they did not disclose their reports regarding their visit to İmralı. CPT stated that they are currently maintaining a dialogue with Turkey, good or bad, and that they do not find it useful to make a statement about the reports for now in order to prevent this dialogue from being interrupted because of the current situation. They responded that we might fall into a more backward situation."

 

'THERE ARE REPORTS THAT CPT HAS NOT EXPLAINED'

 

Drawing attention that the CPT presents the reports it prepared on torture and ill-treatment to the countries it visits and continues to do so confidentially, Yağızay said: "The CPT has not disclosed 4 reports regarding İmralı Prison so far. The most recently announced report emphasized that cutting off Abdullah Öcalan's relations with the outside world was against the European Convention on Human Rights (ECtHR). In the same report that the isolation was also found to be against domestic and international law."