In this interview, Duran Kalkan, member of the Executive Council of the KCK, talked about the role of the CPT in the isolation and torture of Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Ocalan, the struggle for his physical freedom and how this relates to the overall struggle for the freedom of Kurdistan.

Kalkan also spoke about the protests going on in prisons in Turkey and Kurdistan.

The campaign for the freedom of the leader of the Kurdish people, Abdullah Ocalan, is causing pressure on the institutions responsible for the isolation being imposed on Imrali island prison. Over recent days, the ‘European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment’ (CPT) stated that they do not have the authority to disclose information in regard to the conditions on the prison island without the permission of the Turkish state. What can you say about this?

First of all, I salute the historic Imrali resistance and Rêber Apo [Abdullah Ocalan] with respect. Within the scope of the global campaign for his physical freedom and the democratic solution of the Kurdish question, actions have been taken against the Imrali system of torture, isolation and genocide. There are mass actions in all fields. The most noteworthy development was the letter sent by external circles to the CPT as kind of warning. Many intellectuals, trade unionists, artists, and politicians united to issue this warning; this is important. It was a warning.

Nevertheless, the isolation system is unchanged. Some statements were released, in relation to this. In some ways, the CPT report was a confession and it was really incomprehensible. According to the statements made by the CPT, the message to be deducted is that the CPT is but an executive organ under the Council of Europe, under the states. They said 'we report to them. We disclose reports only if the states give permission. If they don’t, we don’t.' They confessed that they don’t even have any power and authority.

In this framework, the CPT has been reduced to an institution, a subordinate, of the AKP-MHP government. They cannot even disclose a report. As such, it is meaningless to call this institution the ‘Committee for the Prevention of Torture’. The states are the perpetrators of torture. Surely the CPT was not built to prevent torturers in society because power is in the hands of the states, not society. An institution which plays the role of an officer of these states and their administrations, cannot prevent the torture of these states. All they are capable of is concealing the perpetrated crimes.

In this sense, it would be more appropriate to call the CPT ‘Committee to conceal torture’. Various lawyers, especially Asrin Law Office, have released statements explaining that the CPT does have the authority to disclose reports. They also explained that the CPT has indeed a lot power which they are choosing not to use in the case of Imrali, the case of Rêber Apo and the Kurds. The CPT has taken the side of the executive, it has taken the side of power. Therefore, it acts in favor of torture.

What the lawyers and jurists are claiming makes more sense. When we look at the title given to this committee, it only makes sense that they would have the power to release information in regard to the torture being inflicted in prisons. The CPT has used its power in various matters in the past. Yet, they refuse to use this power to prevent the torture on Imrali because this might benefit Rêber Apo. The CPT said that “the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) was going to disclose the information, but they didn’t”. This may be true, because the ECHR took a decision for the retrial of Rêber Apo ten or so years ago, but it did not implement or follow up on its decision. It has been twenty-five years, and the ECHR has not done anything. The ECHR is under the command of politics and receives instructions. This situation has nothing to do with laws, these institutions are under the control of the states.

What is the relationship between the CPT and the ECHR? Would the ECHR have acted differently if the CPT had taken the initiative? There is actually a collusion here. The Council of Europe, the Turkish government, the ECHR, the CPT, all the member states of NATO and the European Union, and even the UN are in fact complicit in this conspiracy. This extends to various relevant institutions. The executive bodies are designing a policy around these fabricated disciplinary penalties.

They prevented Rêber Apo from being retrialed after the twenty-five-year detainment period so he does not regain his physical freedom. They prevented and nullified the ECHR’s decision to retrial. There is a complicity here, a common opinion. If this was not the case, Tayyip Erdoğan’s Minister of Justice would not have spoken so recklessly. He would not have been able to show such an insulting attitude, mocking the whole of humanity, the whole world. Very blatantly, he said that there is “no isolation in Imrali, everything is working perfectly.” This is because he knows that he is untouchable and that he will not be opposed. That is the only way to evaluate his remarks.

Recently, they issued another one of their fabricated disciplinary punishments; another three months. Our lawyers are disclosing that this policy is being conducted to prevent meetings with Rêber Apo. Yes, this may be one aspect, but this is not the entire picture. We always draw attention to something: the Turkish state is not only doing this to prevent meetings, but also to prevent the ECHR’s decision for a retrial. It should be known, that the Turkish state is doing this to prevent the exercise of the right to retrial after twenty-five years. The CPT, the ECHR, the Council of Europe, the institutions of the Turkish Republic came together, they thought about how to frustrate this opportunity of retrial, and they found disciplinary sanctions as a guise. Turkey is taking the lead in this. The Turkish state says that this is “the decision of our legal institutions, the courts there”. They are trying to portray Rêber Apo as an undisciplined detainee, to say that a retrial is unnecessary. It is obvious that any retrial will analyze an evaluation of the person’s attitude in prison. They portray Rêber Apo in the most negative light. European law is the law of formality. It does not need to perform according to the principles it sets out to safeguard. All it does is tick boxes; it doesn’t deal with the substance of the matter. So, they prevented Rêber Apo’s retrial.

I myself was in prison for six years. I am not a lawyer, but I didn’t just lie around for those years. I studied the European juridical system a bit. In Europe, a life sentence is fifteen years. The heaviest sentence is always retrialed after twenty-five years. European law is applicable to Imrali, as is the Turkish law, but the Imrali system is a system which was organized by the Council of Europe and the CPT. Rêber Apo said, “When I arrived, the CPT greeted me.” Therefore, according to European law, a retrial was absolutely necessary in the twenty-fifth year of detainment. They made up these disciplinary penalties to prevent retrial and they did prevent it. We need to see this.

Should these institutions function as they claim, it would not matter that the Turkish Republic argues a retrial is unnecessary. They prevented the retrial under a legal pretext. What did Rêber Apo say in the short phone conversation with his brother on March 25, 2021? He said, 'why aren’t my lawyers coming?' He said, 'you are all guilty in this situation.' Now, we are all complicit. What crime have we committed? We committed the crime of not understanding the situation. When he spoke to his brother, Rêber Apo said “Why am I speaking to you and not to my lawyers?” He wanted to speak to his lawyers, because he was aware of the situation. He was aware of the trickery attempted by the Turkish Republic. He was going to take the initiative, through his lawyers, to wage a legal struggle against this conspiracy. By preventing Rêber Apo from seeing his lawyers, by having those fascist, Kurdish-hating courts hand down fabricated disciplinary penalties, they suited a guise for their own laws. In this way, they prevented and frustrated Rêber Apo’s legal struggle. This must be seen.

In this sense, both those who perpetrated this plot and those who failed to prevent it, are guilty. If they prevented Rêber Apo from waging a struggle, then this is because our struggle was insufficient. Our struggle was not enough to break these tricks and plots. In other words, we can not free ourselves from guilt. This is how we should evaluate the situation, and it includes all of us. Because we didn’t see these tricks in time and didn’t work to disrupt them. What we did was not enough. Yes, there is a certain struggle, there are actions, we are making moves, but these are not enough. So, first, we need to evaluate this situation. We must see our inadequacies. We must see where we are in Rêber Apo’s definition of guilt. We need to take a self-critical approach to understand the situation and get out of this inadequate position.

Yes, there are protests now, the struggle continues. We salute the protesters everywhere. Both abroad and in the four parts of Kurdistan, the people are rising; women are rising, our mothers are rising. The demand for the physical freedom of Rêber Apo is spreading all over the world. These are developments. But this is not enough to break the games or to yield serious results, because the opposition is cheating, they cheated blatantly. And then they want to normalize our current situation. This time, we will say “we will not get used to it.”

There is a new talk about the resistance being conducted in the prisons. We hear that the prisons are resisting, and we support them. The prison resistances are adopting a more correct approach because they are saying “we will not get used to this, we will not be a partner in this crime.” The prisons are rejecting the incentives of the state because they understand that this is unfair, and that this is a game. The prisons are questioning why they are being treated differently to Rêber Apo. They understand that these incentives are but a way of distracting revolutionaries. They understand that the state is aiming to draw them away from Rêber Apo, to isolate him more. These people have joined Rêber Apo, they will follow his path. They said that they were “breaking all ties with the state.” I don’t know how much they are doing, how conscious they are, but this is the new line of action, and it suits reality better. What does Rêber Apo say? He says, “look at Imrali and see the reality of the Kurds.” Everyone who aspires to be a free Kurd will understand how they should be when they look at Imrali. The comrades in the prisons are working on cutting their ties with the state and said that they will live by the standards of Rêber Apo; those who say they support the prisons, should take the same stance against the state.

We need to evaluate current actions. We really need to see our inadequacies and fix them. We are in a critical stage; it must be taken seriously. In this way, it is necessary to evaluate the situation of the retrial of the Rêber Apo, every year. In order to prevent this retrial, they constantly issue disciplinary punishments, they will always issue fabricated punishments. They have taken this as a principle and will continue to do so. If this situation is not overcome, they will aim to gradually get everyone used to the absence of Rêber APo. They will keep on stalling off like this. We need to put a stop to this. We are at this point. We cannot be satisfied with the current inadequate situation. We need to develop and spread our campaign aiming for the physical freedom of Rêber Apo. We must enrich, diversify, strengthen and enlarge our actions. We must raise hell. We are at such a pivotal moment now. It has become obvious that soft methods are not working.

This is how we evaluate the current situation: it cannot continue like this. If we do not gain results with this kind of action, then we will find other possible ways. It is not enough to blame others for not working, we will make them work. We will increase our power of action. Everyone needs to see this. We need to evaluate ourselves, our movement, our people, and our international friends as a whole. Some statements are being made by lawyers and academics abroad in relation to Rêber Apo’s situation; they say that the current status is a crime. This is not even debatable. Everything must be done against this. Everyone should enable herself/himself to do everything, wherever they are. We should be in such a situation.

We are at the end of the line. Nothing will just happen with words. Action is necessary, action that gets results is necessary. I invite everyone to make such an assessment of the situation. We will act in whatever way is necessary.