The Free Women's Movement (Tevgera Jinên Azad-TJA) organized a panel on "Freedom" at a wedding hall in Buca district of Izmir. A banner in Kurdish and Turkish "Towards freedom with  Jin Jiyan Azadi" and photographs of Deniz Poyraz were unfurled. People's Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Izmir Deputy Burcu Gül Çubuk as well as many citizens attended the panel. Before the panel, women danced to the halay with Kurdish music. Slogans "Bijî berxwedana zindanan" were frequently chanted.

 

In the panel moderated by DEM Party Izmir Deputy Burcu Gül Çubuk, Fatma Demirer from the İzmir Branch of the Lawyers Association for Freedom (OHD) and Raziye Öztürk, one of the lawyers of Asrın Law Firm, participated as speakers.

 

Fatma Demirer, a lawyer from the OHD Izmir Branch, who spoke first, stated that isolation is a form of torture and said: "Do we need to ask whether the isolated person is a victim? Or are we a movement that demands rights as a result of moral and political demands? Our demand is a free, egalitarian, moral society and law, but what we encounter is detention and isolation. Do we encounter this isolation only in prisons and police stations? Isolation is the isolation, removal and disconnection of people from society. Isolation is a form of torture and a tool that appeals to the soul of the person. It is a system that is abused and in the hands of those who make the laws. But we have our rights.”

 

SOCIAL AND MORAL ASPECTS OF ISOLATION

 

Pointing out that there has been no news from PKK Leader Abdullah Ocalan for 3 years, Demirer emphasized that this cannot be determined by liking a person or not, and that there are legal rights. Stating that they do not demand anything extra, they want the law to be implemented, Demirer said: "We are faced with a system that is incapable of implementing even a simple law. Based on this, there is a system of isolation that operates in all areas and the law has become abused. We are doing our legal best against this, but the issue is It will not only be overcome through law. This also has a social and moral aspect. What is important for us is to raise our voice against efforts aimed at breaking our will. We say that this will continue even if legal demands are met. This will pave the way not only for the Kurds but for all peoples.”

 

'THEY WANTED TO CREATE A POLITICS WITHOUT OCALAN'

 

Raziye Oztürk, one of the lawyers of Asrın Law Firm, touched upon the international conspiracy process. Oztürk stated that the most important reason for the conspiracy was that Ocalan wanted to solve the Kurdish issue through diplomatic means and to prevent the war that was wanted to be waged over the Kurds in the Middle East, and that they wanted to be exhausted both physically and mentally with a 25-year isolation.  Oztürk said: “Even Abdullah Ocalan's lawyers were arrested during this process, he was not allowed to meet with his lawyers, and that he last spoke with his family on March 25, 2021. But despite such isolation conditions, he created a paradigm and solutions that would solve all the issues of Turkey. He continued his resistance as long as they applied pressure. They wanted to make the Kurds forget about him and reduce his political influence. At the same time, they wanted to create a politics without Ocalan as a special war management and to create the Kurd of the system.”

 

REFLECTIONS OF IMRALI

 

Adding that this lawlessness created for 25 years has spread to the whole society, Oztürk stated that the reflections of this isolation have spread to all prisons. Stating that the most important reflection of Imrali is the Type F prisons opened, Oztürk said: "The structure of the Type F was places like Imralı, isolated from the outside world, where there was social isolation. Prisons with more isolation are still being built by developing new types. After Imralı, we saw that trials in political genocide operations were held within the prison campus. The aggravated execution regime, developed specifically for İmralı, is currently being applied to thousands of prisoners. Again, the boards developed specifically for that area are now implemented in all prisons under the name of the Prison Administration Board and arbitrary decisions are made. Not being heard about Imralı caused the lawlessness to become systematized and permanent. The perpetuation of social violence and the deepening of the economic crisis are due to the Kurdish issue being left unresolved. The situation has become such that even the use of the word 'isolation', let alone the fight against isolation, has become isolating.”