In July, 69 Nobel laureates sent an open letter to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) and the United Nations (UN)Human Rights Committee calling for action on the total isolation of Abdullah Öcalan, and a reply was sent to Professor Kariane Westrheim of the University of Bergen and Chair of the EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC), which had sent the letter.

ECtHR limited itself to ‘thanks’ for the letter

In the letter of 29 August, ECtHR official Marialena Tsirli merely thanked Kariane Westrheim for bringing to their attention the detention conditions of Abdullah Öcalan. There was no further response to the letter.

Westrheim then wrote a new letter to the ECtHR in which she called on the Court to fulfil its responsibility and send a delegation to Imralı. She recalled that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, the Committee for the Prevention of Torture and the ECtHR had a duty to protect human rights in the member states of the Council of Europe:

“Mr Öcalan has been out of contact with the outside world for 42 months, a situation that is very sad and increasingly worrying for the Kurdish people, Öcalan's family and his lawyers, whose requests for visits have been repeatedly refused. As Turkey is a member state, we believe that pressure can be brought to bear on Turkey to allow a visit by a delegation from the CPT or other relevant Council of Europe bodies. I would like to thank the President of the European Court of Human Rights once again for his reply. At the same time, I ask you to work with other EU committees to ensure that a delegation is sent to Imralı.”

Reply from the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe

Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuanian Foreign Minister and Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, replied to the letter from the 69 Nobel Laureates in a non-committal manner. Landsbergis stated that the 1507th meeting of the Committee of Ministers would examine the issue of the conditions of detention of Abdullah Öcalan and said: ‘As Lithuania's Presidency of the Committee of Ministers, I can assure you that we will ensure that the Committee will continue to fully monitor member states’ compliance with their commitments’.

‘The Council of Ministers must put pressure on Turkey’

Kariane Westrheim also responded to Landsbergis' letter: “We were very pleased to learn that the Lithuanian Presidency of the Committee of Ministers will continue to monitor whether Member States are fully complying with their commitments. This is very positive news, but our experience shows that Turkey often pays little attention to such requests and there is no change in practice. We would therefore call on the Committee of Ministers to send a delegation to the prison island of Imrali to investigate the situation and state of health of Mr Abdullah Öcalan, who has been imprisoned for life. The fact that Mr Abdullah Öcalan has had no contact with the outside world for 42 months is a source of great concern for his family and his lawyers, who are prevented from meeting him. As Turkey is a member state, we believe that pressure can be brought to bear to allow a visit by a delegation from the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers.”

CPT also limited to reluctant words

CPT President Alan Mitchell replied to a letter sent by Spanish MP Jorge Pueyo Sanz that the Anti-Torture Committee was closely monitoring the situation of prisoners on Imralı and referred to a visit to the island prison in September 2022. Mitchell pointed out that the CPT's dialogue with the Turkish authorities on the situation of Abdullah Öcalan and his fellow prisoners would continue and stressed that the Committee would continue to monitor the situation of those detained on Imralı.