Besê Hozat, co-chair of the Executive Council of the KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union), spoke to Medya Haber TV and stated that the Turkish government is trying to blackmail the Kurdish freedom movement into making concessions by isolating Abdullah Öcalan. The Kurdish people’s leader has been on the prison island of Imrali in the Sea of ​​Marmara for over 25 years, and all contact with the outside world has been lost since March 2021.

Besê Hozat said: “In the last few days, some information has reached us. We think it is important to make this public. A reliable source close to Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan has promised contact with Öcalan if the Kurdish movement makes certain concessions in return. First, a conversation with Öcalan's brother could be arranged, and later with his legal team.”

Following Hozat’s remarks, members of the Democratic Kurdish Community Centre (DTKM) in Strasbourg made a press statement in the area where the Freedom Vigil, which has been continuing for 13 years to ensure the physical freedom of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan.

Sîdar Amedî read the press statement on behalf of DKTM Strasbourg and said the following:

“Leader Öcalan has been subject to torture and isolation in İmralı for 26 years. His lawyers and family cannot have any meetings with him. No news has been received from him for almost four years. All contact with the outside world has been cut off and no information about his health and life can be obtained. Leader Öcalan is completely cut off from the outside world. No response has been given to his lawyers’ and family's requests for a meeting on the grounds that he has been sentenced to a disciplinary penalty.

This justification was systematically put forward and disciplinary penalties were repeatedly given for 3 months each between 2021-2024. Again, according to the information provided by his lawyers, a new 6-month ban on lawyer visits was issued on 3 May. Thus, Leader Öcalan has been banned from seeing his lawyer for 6 months at least 13 times in the last 8 years. Leader Öcalan is being held by the Turkish state in Imrali island prison at the most extreme point of non-communication. With this inhuman isolation, Leader Öcalan is not allowed to have any contact with the outside world, including with his lawyers and family.

The Kurdish people and humanity are not even aware of the existence of Leader Öcalan, and efforts are made to make us get used to this and to accept the aggravated torture and isolation he is subjected to. İmralı is an international torture island, a prison of absolute isolation. Leader Öcalan, who is now 75 years old, has been subjected to cruel torture under the name of solitary confinement for 26 years. For 40 months, no information has been provided about his health status and it has now become impossible to know where he is now and what his physical condition is.

Our concerns are at the highest level and, as Kurdish people, we have no patience left. Millions are demanding an end to this system of torture and isolation. The CPT, which contributes to this uncertainty, is silent. The CPT has the right to visit all prisons in countries party to the convention, including Turkey. This right allows the CPT to send a team of experts to İmralı. We demand that the CPT visit İmralı without justification or excuse and immediately provide information about Leader Öcalan. We also demand that the Council of Europe take immediate action.

The Council of Europe (CoE) must put into practice the right to ‘enjoy human rights and fundamental freedoms’ granted by Article 3 of its statute. Leader Öcalan has been deprived of all human rights. He has not been able to meet with his family or lawyers for 40 months. The CoE should send a delegation to İmralı to meet with Leader Öcalan and obtain clear information about his health condition. The CPT and the Council of Europe should give up their silence that serves the Kurdish genocide and listen to the voices of millions of Kurds.

We know that the conspiracy against Leader Öcalan is international. International powers have planned and implemented this isolation system from the beginning. With their attitude, they continue to contribute to the continuation of the Imrali system. The genocidal war waged by the Turkish state against the Kurdish people is in the interests of international powers. They sacrifice the Kurdish people in order to use Turkey in their ongoing interest policies in the Middle East.

As KCDK-E, we have entered a process of mobilisation against the crimes against humanity and disciplinary penalties imposed in İmralı, which will far exceed all the actions and activities carried out so far. We call for embracement of Leader Öcalan with the most effective actions in order to get a decisive result against the genocidal Turkish state that wants to occupy-annex Kurdistan through treason and collaborator forces.

The Turkish state, which acts as the guardian of the international conspiratorial forces, is making a dastardly bargain by exhibiting its new dirty schemes against our leader after 26 years.

The resistance of our leader against the deepened isolation and torture system is too strong and powerful to be subject to any bargaining and blackmail. This blackmail also shows the desperation of the Turkish state and international powers. The leader of oppressed peoples, Mr Öcalan, is not treated in accordance with universal legal norms. The situation of our leader, from whom we have not received any news for years, worries us. In this sense, we call on the relevant institutions, the ECtHR, the CoE and the CPT, to take urgent action. Isolation, torture and isolation are crimes against humanity. As Kurdish people, we will not give you the opportunity to commit this crime any further."