VAN - Stating that the isolation in Imralı is a social issue, ÖHD member Leyla Kaplan Kertiş said: "The aim of isolation is to disconnect PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan with society."

 

The isolation against PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, who is being held in İmralı Type F High Security Prison, has turned into a state of not being heard with the ban on family and lawyers that has been going on for more than two years. Lawyer Leyla Kaplan Kertiş, a member of the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), stated that there is a state of isolation in Imrali that extends to Turkey and said that the Kurdish political movement in the person of Abdullah Öcalan, the Kurdish people and prisons are in isolation.

 

'THE AIM IS TO DISCONNECT ÖCALAN WITH SOCIETY'

 

Reminding that his lawyers last met with Abdullah Öcalan in 2019 and ÖHD's applications to İmralı, Kertiş said: "We have constant applications to meet with Mr. Öcalan. As a result, Öcalan is our client and we want to meet with him. Although we apply to the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office each time, our request is not met positively. It is a situation of isolation and inhuman treatment applied to Mr. Abdullah Öcalan. We do not consider this isolation to be individual. We think that this is a social problem. It is aimed to deliberately disconnect Öcalan with society. His communication with the Kurdish people and their lawyers is prevented. This is actually a political goal. It has no equivalent in both domestic and international law."

 

'STRUGGLING AGAINST THE INSULATION WILL CONTINUE'

 

Stating that they will continue their struggle against the isolation, Kertiş said: “Our demand remains, no matter who the next administration is after the election. We will convey these demands to the new management. In the reports of international delegations that went to Imrali, it is stated that there is torture through isolation. We will push our demands through public opinion. We will try all legal ways to lift the isolation. As ÖHD, this demand will always be present.”