PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan has been held in isolation in İmralı Type F High Security Prison for more than 25 years. PKK Leader held a family meeting with his nephew, DEM Party MP Ömer Öcalan on 23 October after 43 months. During the meeting, Abdullah Öcalan said: "Isolation continues. If conditions are right, I have the theoretical and practical power to move this process from the ground of conflict and violence to the legal and political ground." After Abdullah Öcalan message, which reached outside after years, first family visits and then lawyer visits were banned.

 

While Abdullah Öcalan's message remains on the agenda, the "right to hope", which has been voiced by Kurdish public opinion and jurists for years, has started to be discussed again with the call of Turkish Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chair Devlet Bahçeli. 

 

COMMITTEE WARNED

 

On 18 March 2014, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the sentencing of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan to aggravated life imprisonment without the right to conditional release violated the European Convention on Human Rights on the basis of the "right to hope" principle and asked Turkey to make arrangements in this regard. However, Turkey has not taken any steps regarding the "violation" judgement despite the 10 years that have passed. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which oversees the implementation of the Court's judgments, warned Turkey at its last meeting between 17-19 September to take the necessary measures without delay, otherwise an interim decision will be prepared at its meeting in September 2025.

 

Mêrdîn Bar Association Human Rights Commission member lawyer Civan Ortaç made evaluations on the "Right to Hope".

 

RIGHT TO HOPE

 

"Right to hope" was first introduced in 1977 with the jurisprudence of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany said Ortaç and added: "Later on, there is a decision of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany in 1988. We see that the European Court of Human Rights has been discussing this decision since 1998, but made its first decision in 1-2013. In 2013, the foundations of the 'right to hope' were laid with the UK Winter decision. Otherwise, we do not come across a clear definition of the 'right to hope' in either national or international legislation."

 

Stating that the European Court of Human Rights referred to the fact that "aggravated life" and "life imprisonment" sentences should not be served for life, Ortaç said that it was pointed out that if the prison sentences lasted for life, a violation of the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment would occur in the context of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

 

4 THOUSAND PEOPLE DEPRIVED OF 'RIGHT TO HOPE'

 

Stating that the lates regulation are humanistic in terms of contemporary Criminal Law, Ortaç said: "After the countries have abolished the death penalty from their penal codes, they mostlu include life imprisonment and aggravated life imprisonment in their laws. However, when the death penalty is abolished, we witness that life imprisonment sentences are continued for life in some countries. The European Court of Human Rights states that keeping a person in prison for long years, for life, is incompatible with human rights, is a heavy blow to human dignity, and therefore these practices must be ended. In this regard, it actually decides that countries should make certain arrangemenets in their own legislation." 

 

Drawing attention to the decision of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Ortaç reminded that in the Court's decision on Abdullah Öcalan, the Court had ruled that the ECHR had been violated due to the "failure to stipulate an evaluation period for conditional release". 

 

"The Committee of Ministers also decided in its meeting that Turkey should establish a control mechanism in this direction, as well as to control whether the person will be released or not for certain periods of time. At this point, we can state that not only Abdullah Öcalan, but in general about 4 thousand people are in this situation. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe asked Turkey how many people are in this situation and according to the answer given by Turkey; we can say that approximately 4 thousand people are deprived of the 'right to hope'," he said. 

 

'A NEW REGULATION IS NEEDED'

 

Underlining that the "right to hope" must be implemented, Ortaç said that the way to overcome this is to abolish the regulation in the provisional Article 2 of the Law No. 5275 on the Execution of Sentences and Security Measures.

 

Stating that a new regulation is needed at the same time, Ortaç emphasised that the "right to hope" is prevented on the basis of the regulations in the Law No. 5275 and the Anti-Terror Law No. 3713 and said: "This can be prevented by repealing these regulations, making new regulations and establishing a supervision mechanism."

 

'ISOLATION MUST BE ENDED'

 

Stating that isolation in itself is a serious violation of human rights, Ortaç continued as follows: "After Devlet Bahçeli's statements on isolation, isolation must be ended in order to ensure social reconciliation and peace. On the one hand, we are talking about the lifting of isolation, on the other hand we are experiencing the trustee practices. In that context, actually ending the isolation is completely related to a decision that the executive can take. Because this is not a judicial decision. It is a situation with the intervention of the executive. In the context of human rights, results can be achieved by lifting isolation and exercising the 'right to hope' at the same time."

 

MA / Ahmet Kanbal