A delegation consisting of Democratic Society Congress (DTK) Co-Chair Berdan Öztürk and Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputies Ömer Öcalan, Feleknas Uca, Dilan Dirayet Taşdemir, Şevin Coşkun, Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit, Sezai Temelli, Abdullah Koç, Nuran İmir, Hüseyin Kaçmaz and Erdal Aydemir took action in front of the Ministry of Justice in capital Ankara yesterday, December 21, demanding urgent contact with Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan.

HDP deputies who staged a sit-in action outside the Ministry office will continue their protest in a rotating-indefinite manner in front of the ministry at certain hours every day.

DTK Co-Chair Bedran Öztürk, HDP MPs Sezai Temelli, Remziye Tosun, Abdullah Koç, Dilan Dirayet Taşdemir and Şevin Coşkun have on Thursday submitted a request to the Ministry of Justice to meet with Abdullah Öcalan from whom no news has been received for nearly two years. 

BACKGROUND

Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Öcalan has been kept in isolation in Imrali since 1999. There has been no news from him for the last two years.

Lawyers are requesting to meet with the Kurdish people's leader twice a week. However, applications for interviews are systematically left unanswered. In some cases, months later, lawyers are presented with disciplinary action against their client as a justification for the rejection of their applications.

Recently, it was learned that after the ban on visits imposed on 13 April ended on 18 October. However, it was automatically extended for another six months.

Concerns over the situation of the Kurdish people's leader increased after the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) visited Turkey on September 20-29. In a statement on 3 October, the CPT announced that Imralı F Type High Security Prison was among the institutions it visited.

However, Asrın Law Office reported that during the CPT visit, they heard that there was no meeting with Abdullah Öcalan, and that this situation increased their concerns. Asrın Law Office made a statement on 29 November saying: "We have heard that Mr. Öcalan did not attend the meeting during the CPT's visit to Imralı Island in September 2022."