The Manbij Health Committee made a statement calling attention to the situation of the Kurdish people’s leader, Abdullah Öcalan, who is held in isolation on Imrali Island in the Sea of Marmara and has not been heard from for 32 months.
Concerns over the situation of Öcalan increased after the Executive Council Member of the Kurdistan Democratic Communities Union (KCK), Sabri Ok said in an interview on the Kurdish TV Channel Sterk TV on July 8 that threatening letters had recently been sent to Abdullah Öcalan anonymously via the Imrali prison administration.
Reading the press statement, Kusey Mihemed, a member of the Manbij Heath Committee, defined the imprisonment and isolation of Abdullah Öcalan as a black mark.
The statement said: “Leader Abdullah Öcalan was forcibly abducted and taken captive, put in solitary confinement and has long been subjected to psychological torture. These acts are a crime against humanity and require urgent intervention by the international community because Leader Öcalan presented the concept of a democratic nation that shows the way to liberation to the oppressed peoples in the world.”
The committee called for the immediate and unconditional release of Abdullah Öcalan and called on the United Nations, European Union, International Red Cross and other concerned international institutions to support the cause of Kurdish people’s leader, Abdullah Öcalan.