URFA - Gökhan Dayık, Ahmet Ceylan and Serhat Kurt, who are among the attorneys who signed the petition to meet with PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, held under isolation, reminded that the isolation is a crime against humanity and asked for a attorney's visit to be provided immediately.

 

775 attorneys applied to visit PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan and other prisoners Veysi Aktaş, Hamili Yıldırım and Ömer Hayri Konar, who are held under heavy isolation conditions in İmralı Type F High Security Prison against the ongoing ban on attorneys. Under the leadership of the Association for Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), 775 attorneys registered to 29 bar associations, including representatives of institutions and bar association presidents, applied to the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office with a request for an attorney visit with their clients between June 10-17; however, there has been no response to the application made since then.

 

Gökhan Dayık, Member of the Executive Board of the Urfa Bar Association, Serhat Kurt, Co-spokesperson of the Prisons Monitoring Board of the Association for Lawyers for Freedom and Ahmet Ceylan the Co-spokesperson of the Human Rights Association (İHD) Urfa Branch Prison Commission who are among the attorneys who requested a meeting and said that their applications were not received.

 

ISOLATION AS A WHITE TORTURE

 

Urfa Bar Association Executive Board member Gökhan Dayık said: "Isolation is a form of torture. What is being done to the prisoners in İmralı is called "white torture". The isolation is a method used to cut off all relations of the prisoners with the outside world, isolate them and break their will. Torture is also a violation of human rights, and in this context, it constitutes a crime in our laws. The isolation was applied to the leaders of some revolutionary movements in various countries of the world in the past and aimed at breaking their will. Today, it is no longer practiced in many democratic countries. Unfortunately, this practice continues in Turkey."

 

'THE STATE SHOULD ELIMINATE CONCERNS REGARDING MR. ÖCALAN'S LIFE'

 

Stating that Öcalan has been living under severe isolation conditions like being held in an island prison surrounded by the sea for many years, not being able to meet with his family and attorneys, and there are concerns about his life in the public, Dayık said: "There is only one way to eliminate the concerns regarding Mr. Öcalan's life. That is to pave the way for Mr. Öcalan to meet both with his family and with his attorneys. Other than that, these concerns cannot be eliminated. There are international conventions to which the Republic of Turkey is a party. In case of the violation of these conventions, Turkey will face serious sanctions when these violations are brought to the ECtHR. The restriction of attorneys against Öcalan is against the equality principle of the constitution. There is no legal basis for this anyway. It is arbitrary treatment and can not be accepted. Every prisoner has the right to meet with his family and attorneys. Öcalan's age and his lengthy imprisonment increases this concern. Eliminating these concerns can only be achieved by providing legally recognised rights to family visit, telephone calls and attorneys visit."

 

'THE SITUATION IS CONCERNING'

 

Stating that the following conclusions were reached when the 23-year execution regime in Imrali was evaluated completely, both nationally and internationally, Ceylan said: “There is an impediment to the rights recognised by the national legislation of the state and the international conventions to which it is a party. Although there have been ECtHR violation decisions on this issue before, even though Turkey did not take action to eliminate the violation, sanctions were not imposed due to the motives stemming from the political concerns of the Council of Europe. Since the violations continue, many applications for violations of rights are under the ECtHR's examination. The Imrali isolation system, on the other hand, continues to spread to other prisons. The state's ability to violate its own laws so blatantly poses a serious threat to everyone. It is also essential for the relief of the country that the state can return to the principles of the rule of law by removing the isolation. For this reason, hundreds of attorneys with a high social and humanitarian awareness have made such applications. The main for the isolation of Mr. Öcalan is the state's fear for his ideas to get to the people.

 

MA / Ceylan Şahinli