PKK (Kurdistan Worker's Party) leader Abdullah Öcalan who was brought to Turkey as a result of an international conspiracy on 15 February 1999 remains in isolation in İmralı Island Prison since.

An international delegation led by South African Leader Nelson Mandela's lawyer Essa Moosa from the International Peace and Reconciliation Initiative has planned a three-day visit to Turkey on February 14th to contribute efforts for the ending of the isolation on the Kurdish leader and the ongoing war in North Kurdistan.

The 11-person delegation which will arrive in Istanbul tomorrow will meet committees from HDP, CHP and AKP before being granted a visit to the Island of İmralı on 16 February. Judge Essa Moosa will be accompanied by the following names during the three-day talks in Turkey;

- Independent author, copy editor, and graphic artist Janet Biehl from America

- Political activist, writer and publisher Dimitri Roussopoulos from Canada, co-founder of International Confederation for Disarmament and Peace

- Academic Federico Venturini from the University of Leeds, UK,

- Academic Dr. Thomas Jeffrey Miley from the University of Cambridge, UK

- Social justice activist Dr. Radha D’Souza from UK

- Andrej Hunko, member of the German Parliament, Bundestag

- Author Eirik Eiglad from the New Compass, Norway

- Edgar de Jesús Lucena González from the Venezuealan Parliament

- Joe Ryan, Chair of Westminster Justice and Peace, UK

- Francisco Velasco Andrade, former Minister of Culture for Ecuador.

Thomas Jeffrey Miley, Janet Biehl and Andrej Hunko spoke to ANF before the visit to Turkey which is meant to provide contribution to efforts for the ending of the ongoing conflict and re-initiation of peace process.

JEFFREY MILEY: ÖCALAN'S IDEA NEEDED

Academic Dr. Thomas Jeffrey Miley from the University of Cambridge called attention to the deadlock faced today with regards to the resolution of the Kurdish question in Turkey, adding; "While Turkey's intellectuals who speak against the escalated conflict and human rights violations are being threatened and suppressed, Turkey faces the risk of witnessing a war like in Syria which would storm through the entire region. This is the very reason why Abdullah Öcalan's idea is needed. His voice is of great importance for peace, and the democratic confederalism model put forward by his side is the only alternative to the atrocity, chaos and war ongoing in the Middle East. For all these reasons, we want to go to İmralı and talk to him."

Pointing to AKP government's failure to embrace the HDP's political project and results of elections, Miley said the followings; "AKP and Erdoğan treated HDP's success as a threat against their authoritarian system. One other factor is the growing sympathy for the Kurdish Freedom Movement that put up brave resistance in Kobanê. These two developments have mobilized the warlike reflexes of those holding the ideological and power tools of the Turkish state which consequently resorted to violence. However, Kurdish Freedom Movement cannot be suppressed and defeated this way."

JANET BIEHL: TURKEY SHOULD RECOGNISE THE RIGHTS OF KURDS

Independent author and copy editor Janet Biehl also called attention to Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Öcalan's role in the resolution of the Kurdish question, saying; "The goal of the delegation's visit is to enable the re-initiation of dialogue in order for the resolution of the Kurdish question through peaceful ways. Mr. Öcalan has a major role in this regard. The ongoing aggravated isolation imposed on him since April is anti-democratic and unlawful. There exists an urgent need to end the military operations on Kurdish towns, massacre of Kurdish civilians, isolation on Öcalan and re-initiation of peace process."

Drawing attention to Kurdish people's inalienable right to live freely in their own land with their own identity, Biehl criticised the suppression of Kurdish people's self-rule demand through military ways, adding; "The Turkish state is suppressing the Kurdish minority, denying their existence utterly, bombing Kurdish towns and implementing genocidal policies against Kurds whom it sees as terrorists. It is doing this with merciless atrocity. In this age, the Turkish state should recognise the existence of Kurds and grant them the right to live freely together, which will also bring along democratization."

ANDREJ HUNKO: TURKEY IS COMMITTING A CRIME

Another member of the delegation, Andrej Hunko, member of the German Parliament, put emphasis on the urgent need for both sides to return to the negotiation table, for the accomplishment of which - he said- Öcalan must be free. He noted that they will have a series of talks in Istanbul and Ankara during their visit.

Hunko described the Turkish state's massacres in Kurdistan as unacceptable and a crime according to the international law, adding; "In spite of this bare truth, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has remained silent on Turkey's practices on the excuse of the refugee problem. This is a shame."