Kurdish politician Abdülmelik Okyay, who was being held in Erzurum H Type Prison, suddenly had a heart attack in jail hours before his release. Okyay, who was taken to Erzurum Research Hospital, could not be saved despite all interventions.

Okyay's body was taken to Erzurum Forensic Medicine Institute.

DEM Party Erzirom Provincial Administration, Municipality co-mayors, family and relatives gathered in front of the Forensic Medicine Institute after receiving the sad news. Okyay's body was delivered to the family after examinations at the Forensic Medicine Institute.

Okyay's body will be buried in his hometown, the village of Qirikan today.

Abdulmelik Okyay became acquainted with Kurdish political movements during his student life in the 1980s and dedicated his life to the Kurdish people's struggle for rights. He continued his political struggle, which he started with the Labor Party (HEP), one of the political parties of the Kurdish Freedom Movement that developed in the 1990s, at various levels of Kurdish politics. Okyay served as the HADEP Erzirom Provincial Chairman for a long time, and later continued his active politics as a member of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Party Assembly.

Okyay faced detention and arrest processes many times in the 90s, did not stop his struggle for the rights of the Kurdish people despite all pressures.