ISTANBUL, TURKEY
Lawyer of the People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan, Rezan Sarıca, stated in an interview with our agency that the Aggravated Execution Regime being developed in İmralı has no legal basis and that the isolation has been applied as a torture system for 21 years.
Rezan Sarıca stated that they have not received any news from Leader Öcalan since April 27 and that “the fact that the Kurdish people today are becoming a rising value not only in the Middle East but all over the world despite all the disasters,” is related directly to the struggle of Leader Abdullah Öcalan on Imrali island.
The entire interview with Rezan Sarıca, Lawyer of People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan, is as follows;
First of all, what is the basis of the 21 years of aggravated isolation being imposed on the Kurdish People’s Leadership? Why is such a system of isolation being implemented?
“The Imrali Isolation System is the name of a system that has been applied to the entire Kurdish People in general in the person of Mr. Öcalan since February 15, 1999. Just as the Eastern Reform Plan was developed against the Kurds after February 15, 1925, in the person of Sheikh Sait, the Imrali Isolation System is being implemented today. We can call it the law of unlawfulness and arbitrariness.
In this context, we can briefly answer your question which deserves a very broad answer. The Aggravated Execution Regime, which has been developed in Imrali, is carried out most of the time but has no legal basis even if it has a law or court decision to support it from time to time.
There is already a very clear decision in the ECtHR (European Court of Human Rights) that this regime being implemented is under the scope of torture and must be changed. Turkey is on the agenda of the European Council of Ministers Committee for not applying this decision.
However, since the main architect of the Imrali Isolation System is based on the international system forces and the balance of politics, the file is kept in protraction.
Why did the CPT publish its report on Imrali so late?
There are allegations that the CPT report was published with the permission of Turkey. What can you say about this?
The CPT, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, has the authority to monitor and control prisons without permission. The source of this influence, as its name suggests, is intended to prevent torture. The condition of publication of the reports in the founding contract of the CPT is subject to the approval of the member states. We see this situation as the structural problem of the CPT.
This issue has been on the agenda of the Council of Europe from time to time, as it has been revealed that a certain level of struggle against torture has been achieved as a result of human rights struggles, but no further step has been taken. However, if the member state insists on not fulfilling the requirements of the reports, the CPT also has the power to announce its report to the public without approval.
The Imrali visit in 2019 took place without permission, but the resulting report of this visit was published only after the approval of member state Turkey. This procedure is only meant to be used during ordinary processes.
When we look specifically at İmralı, there is a state of emergency situation where a system of torture has been persistently implemented for 21 years. If we remember the CPT’s visit, it took place after public pressure at the most critical stage of hunger strikes and death fasts. For this reason, instead of the usual procedures, the CPT should not have waited for the approval of the member state against a system of torture which is being applied persistently.
We believe that the CPT should not have waited because as it has been listed in the CPT’s founding agreement, member states are obliged to cooperate with the CPT and especially because the isolation implementations have been stretched over a span of 21 years. This is especially true due to the failure of the member state to fulfill the dozens of recommendations stated in the CPT visits and reports. The requests and recommendations continue; and the CPT’s responsibility to prevent torture continues.
There were some who found that the CPT’s report was insufficient. Do you think the report was prepared objectively? How effective will this report be on the current government? Does it have a power to change its conditions?
We have partially discussed our criticism of the CPT in your previous question. In our statement, we discussed this issue extensively. The establishment purpose of CPT is to prevent torture. The ECtHR has clearly stated that the imralı system is a system of torture. The CPT has shared this situation many times in its report. This system continues to be implemented, therefore, CPT needs to operate in a more effective method, ranging from the language it prefers to the mechanisms it implements. It has been found that it would not be able to fulfill his foundation rationale otherwise.
Besides, neither a report nor a court decision alone has the authority to change such a comprehensive system. Everyone concerned knows that this system is built on unlawfulness and arbitrariness. There is only one thing that will change this system; it is the struggle for human rights and democracy. Mr. Öcalan has been fighting this struggle for 21 years. In both his speeches and his defenses against all unlawfulness, he said, “We are looking for a law for the Kurds, we are building a law for the Kurds.”
It should not be forgotten that amongst the many factors which bring about change, one of the most important is exposure of what is wanted to be changed. These and similar reports and decisions provide the exposure of unlawfulness and facilitate change. This report is important in terms of exposing the torture system once again, because the visit that is the subject of this report was achieved as a result of the struggle carried out against the Imrali Isolation System. What will happen in the future also depends on this struggle.
In the report in question, for the first time there is an emphasis on the Imrali System being a system of isolation. If CPT sees the Imrali system as a system of isolation, what steps should be taken in this regard in accordance with universal laws?
There are currently two very important decisions in international law regarding İmralı. One of them is the ruling of the 1999 Imrali judgment which is in violation of the right to a fair trial. This decision was tried to be corrected on the file with an unrealistic method, but it is impossible to correct.
The other decision is that the Imrali penitentiary system or the Imrali aggrevated penitentiary regime is a violation of the prohibition of torture and it’s requirements have not been fulfilled by Turkey for 6 years which is why it is on the agenda of the Committee of Ministers. There are other ongoing cases that we believe will be infringed. This report is important as it once again demonstrates that the Imrali isolation is a torture system.
In this regard, international law, which the Council of Europe is bound by, makes it necessary that decisions of sanctions are taken against Turkey.
If universal legal standards are to be taken into account in the context we have explained, it is legally time to end Mr. Öcalan’s detention.
The Kurdish people closely follow the developments regarding the torture system in Imrali; Is there any information that the public does not know?
As you know, as lawyers, we have not been able to meet with Mr. Öcalan since August 7, 2019. In 2020, Mr. Öcalan was only able to meet with the family twice, face-to-face on March 3 and a limited phone call on April 27. Both were carried out under extraordinary circumstances, one of which was caused by a fire allegation and the other due to public concerns and pressure.
We, like everyone else, unfortunately have not been able to receive any news from Mr. Öcalan since April 27. For this reason, we have applied to the Constitutional Court first and then to the ECHR with a request for a measure on this issue. We also shared this with the public.
It is generally agreed that your client is the source of solution for many serious social problems in Turkey
Is the maintenance of the isolation and it’s aggravation linked to this situation?
In summary, it is necessary to analyse the Imrali isolation system in a few dialectics. These dialectics are war-peace, chaos-solution, coup-democracy.
The international conspiracy could not have happened by itself, if the whole world wasn’t mobilized in a way unprecedented in history. At this point, Mr. Öcalan made a move which weakened the effect of the conspiracy.
Not content with this, he both exposed the world system and revealed the solution perspective with his defenses.
As a matter of fact, in his last lawyer meeting dated 7 August, he described the situation by saying, “I have been resisting against the conspiracy for 21 years with the line of freedom.”
A few lawyers’ meetings held in 2019 were enough to change the dynamics of the situation and increase hope. The effect of Mr. Öcalan’s words “my politics is the policy of survival” and “we are growing hope” still continues to this day.
The 7-point democracy declaration and the words “if my conditions are met, I will solve this problem in a week” are still up-to-date and valid. For these reasons, the direct effect of the isolation conditions that have been deepened is undisputed. However, it is also a fact that Mr. Öcalan has never acquired a static, dull life philosophy, he has never restarted, and has always continued from where he left off, reaching more advanced stages.
The fact that the Kurdish people today are becoming a rising value not only in the Middle East but all over the world despite all the disasters, is related to this.
Finally, do you have anything to add?
Thank you for your sensitivity in this matter. As we can partially explain, it has once again been revealed by international human rights institutions that the Imrali Isolation System is a torture system. It should not be forgotten that the history of human rights and societies has repeatedly demonstrated that all concepts that we know today as rights were first won by struggle and then registered on the legal ground. Today, especially in the person of Mr. Öcalan, the Imrali isolation system has been broken by struggle in the whole geography where Kurds live, but there is no reason why it should not disappear completely.”
