Speaking to Mesopotamia Agency (MA), the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Urfa MP and nephew of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan, Ömer Öcalan said: “Mr Öcalan was illegally taken out of Syria regardless of national and international law and brought to Turkey in a pirate-like manner. International law was trampled underfoot. Mr Öcalan was pushed outside the law. He was sentenced on the same date that Şêx Seîd was executed. The law was bypassed and Mr Öcalan was held as a political hostage.”

Ömer Öcalan highlighted the importance of the European Court of Human Rights' (ECtHR) 2014 ruling that keeping a person in prison for life without the possibility of release is a “violation of the right to hope” and said, “However, it has been 10 years and Turkey has not taken any initiative. The Parliament was supposed to amend the execution laws. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe last took the non-implementation of this judgement on its agenda 3 years ago. Turkey ignored this decision, citing the coup and saying ‘we are fighting terrorism within ourselves’. We do not know what kind of decision will be taken at the upcoming meeting. However, when it comes to Mr Öcalan and the Kurds in Turkey, it is necessary to stop and analyse. The law is not applied in such cases.”

Stating that the Committee of Ministers has the power to impose sanctions on Turkey, Ömer Öcalan reminded the process that was carried out for Azerbaijan and continued: “Why wouldn’t a similar process be carried out for Turkey? Azerbaijan's strategic position is different, Turkey's is different. It is obvious that Turkey has been blackmailing the authorised institutions of Europe for a long time. It even uses refugees, which is a humanitarian situation, as an element of blackmail. Not only Mr Öcalan, but also Osman Kavala, Selahattin Demirtaş, Figen Yüksekdağ and Can Atalay decisions are obvious. The Constitution states that ‘the application of international conventions in domestic law is superior to the laws’. Turkey is subject to these decisions but has trampled both its own law and international law, starting from İmralı.”

Ömer Öcalan noted that they have not received any news from İmralı for 42 months and criticized the lack of any official statement on this matter. “International political interests have overridden everything. These interests make Turkey more reckless. We have no choice but to resist Turkey's wrong policies.”

Ömer Öcalan remarked that the policies of isolation implemented against Abdullah Öcalan are intended to make him forgotten. “The state failed to make us forget Mr Öcalan. Without talking about peace with the Kurds, without sitting at the table with their interlocutors, the deadlock in the problems will deepen even more. The policy of making things forgotten in the last 9 years has been eliminated through struggle.”

Ömer Öcalan emphasised the importance of the global campaign for Abdullah Öcalan's freedom and said: “Everyone should participate in the campaigns more than ever. The address of the solution is clear. If we are not going to play our role today, when will we? The rally to be held in Amed on 13 October is important. There should be participation from all over Kurdistan and the metropolises of Turkey. Bar associations, all human rights defenders and the opposition should participate it and make their voice heard. The Kurdish people have been struggling for their identity and language for centuries. In the second century of the Republic, everyone must put a stop to these policies.”

“As a family, we want to meet with Mr Öcalan as soon as possible. Everyone should support this. Kurds are facing a great historic responsibility. We need to contribute in order not to miss this historic situation. Mr Öcalan is the leader of the Kurdish people and has not been heard from for 42 months. Our people must fulfil their responsibility towards Mr Öcalan,” the DEM Party MP said.

Ömer Öcalan stated that the failure to obey the law costs the peoples of Turkey dearly, adding: “Kurdistan has been turned into a geography of war. The 3rd World War is being waged in the Middle East. This harms all the peoples living in the metropolises of Turkey. One tenth of the annual budget of this country is allocated to the war against the Kurds. There are those who benefit from this dirty war, there is a rent here. From arms smuggling to the heroin trade, things are being covered up with this war. Everyone should question this war. People in Turkey are hypnotised by the rhetoric of ‘homeland and nation’. With the perception that ‘the state is being lost’, efforts are made to legitimize the war against the Kurds. If Turkey's economy is in this state, this is related to the denial of the Kurds.”