CENTRAL NEWS
Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s brother Mehmet Öcalan and his guardian Mazlum Dinç applied to the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office to visit the Peoples’ Leader.
The brother of the People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan, Mehmet Öcalan, and his guardian Mazlum Dinç applied to Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office to go to Imrali.
Ömer Hayri Konar’s brother Ali Konar, Hamili Yıldırım’s brother Polat Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş’s sister Melihe Çetin, also applied for a meeting through their lawyers. The inmates were transferred to Imrali in 2015, as part of the “Peace Process” plot which was used by the Turkish state to liquidate the PKK. Until then, the peoples’ leader had been on the Island prison alone since his abduction in 1999.
Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s lawyers Rezan Sarıca and Newroz Uysal had a meeting with the Leader for the first time in 8 years on 2 May, 22 May and 12 June 2019. The last time the Leader had spoken to a lawyer before, was in 2011. The Leader used his right to a phone call for the first time in 21 years, on 28 April 2020.
All applications being filed by lawyers to meet with their clients since 7 August are being ignored.
Lawyer and phone call ban
Leader Abdullah Öcalan, and the other inmates in Imrali prison were given a 6-month attorney ban by the Bursa 2nd Execution Judge.
The decision for the ban was listed as a “disciplinary measure” taken against the 156-page Road Map presented to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) as a continuation of Leader Öcalan’s defense in 2009.
Similar rulings by the Prison Disciplinary Board were made on March 2, 2018, September 6, 2018 and March 13, 2019 after 20 July 2016. These attempts to isolate the Peoples’ Leader were deepened with an additional phone call ban which was issued on September 7 by the Directorate of Imrali F-Type Closed Penal Institution Administration and Observation Board.
The 6-month ban was also implemented on the other inmates, Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş.
What is the Road Map?
The lawyer-ban being imposed on the Peoples’ Leader is based on the disciplinary sanctions imposed on the leader during the years from 2005 to 2009, and the Prison Disciplinary Board decision on the 156-page “Roadmap for Negotiations” written by Leader Abdullah Öcalan in 2009. The road map was submitted to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) as a pleading.
This Road Map which designs a solution for the crisis created by nation states was described by the international initiative “Freedom for Öcalan – Peace in Kurdistan”, as follows:
“Öcalan defines here the steps necessary for the beginning of a real peace process. At the same time he outlines a real solution to the Kurdish question. Beyond traditional solution models such as statehood or territorial autonomy, he draws the vision of a democratic nation and a common homeland for all states where Kurds live – yes, for the entire Middle East. By invalidating conventional arguments, he creates food for thought for all parties to the conflict.”
Tensions are escalating
Tensions continue to escalate in Europe and Kurdistan as any form of communication with the leader is being blocked by the fascist Turkish state. As suspicions continue to grow regarding the well-being of the Leader, it has been noted that the actions being carried out worldwide for the physical freedom of the People’s Leader are intensifying.
Recently, the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) had released in their report that the system being implemented in Imrali island is a system of torture. The CPT has taken no further steps regarding the institutionalized torture being faced by the People’s Leader.
The leader was given to Turkey by CIA and Greece as a “gift” for the Agean crisis
The International Conspiracy started with the Leader choosing to leave Syria in 1998 to not attract military pressure to the armed-resistance.
The Leader remained in Syria and Rojava for most of the time he was away from Northern Kurdistan till the Anti-PKK coalition which was signed in 1992 by the Turkish state, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
With the second “anti-terror” agreement of 1996, or the anti-PKK alliance signed between the USA, Israel and the Turkish Republic, the Leader chose to leave Syria. Till then, the Syrian government had accepted his presence in Syria as the activity of such a force within its borders created a security from Turkish threats for Syria too.
“On the other hand, the Syrian-Arab government never wished to surpass their tactical alliance with the PKK leadership. An alliance with the PKK had been part of Syria’s answer to the threats that had been coming from Turkey since 1958 and Turkey’s extreme pro-Israel tendencies. The PKK did not object to such a tactical relationship.”
In his fourth defense writings the Peoples’ Leader explained why he chose to leave Syria:
“My only alternative was to go off into the mountains of Kurdistan. Two factors made me decide to not do this.
First, my presence would attract massive military force. This would lead to serious damage to the civilians in the area and my comrades; it could also lead to the armed struggle becoming the exclusive means of obtaining a solution for the Kurdish question.
Second, it was a pressing need to educate the youth joining our organization.”
Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s first destination after leaving Kurdistan was Greece, from where he immediately had to continue to Moscow. Neither of the countries were prepared to effectively grant him political asylum. On 13 November 1998, Leader Abdullah Öcalan entered Italy, where he was allocated temporary accommodation in a Roman suburb until 17 January. The Italian authorities turned down a Turkish request for extradition on grounds that Leader Öcalan would face the death penalty upon his return to Turkey. At the same time, the German Federal authorities decided to defer an arrest warrant against Leader Abdullah Öcalan that had been issued in 1990 on grounds of a legally adventurous construct. The two countries’ prime ministers conferred on possible venues for an international conference on a political solution to the Kurdish question with European involvement.
Leader Öcalan, in turn, expressed his belief in the basic principles and democratic safeguards of the European Union. For example, his statement to the exile publication Özgür Politika on 16 January 1999 is worded as follows:
“I believe that a concept of law as expressed in the legal framework of the European Union should be developed for the Kurdish question and I have expressed according demands. I wish to underline [our demand] that a legal commission founded on the principles of the European Union should go on fact-finding and research missions in Kurdistan and, if necessary, an international court should be established.”
Leader Öcalan repeatedly made clear that he was prepared to stand trial before such an international court himself under the sole condition that Turkey be tried, too. But his hopes and demands were not met. The Turkish government and media apparatus had unleashed an ever-mounting campaign of chauvinist outrage against Italy for harboring Leader Öcalan, “the baby killer and murderer of 30,000 people.” The campaign amounted to a boycott of Italian products and generated stark anti-Italian sentiments amongst the Turkish populace. At the same time, and less parochially, the USA silently used diplomatic channels to dissuade European governments from supporting any political initiative for a peaceful resolution of the Kurdish conflict.
Germany’s move to defer the arrest warrant then turned out to be a green light for the Italian government’s final decision to pressure Leader Abdullah Öcalan into leaving the country for an uncertain destination notwithstanding his outstanding asylum application. All European countries refused to grant him leave to enter. Via Moscow, Athens and Corfu the Kurdish leader was finally flown to the Greek Embassy at Nairobi, Kenya, in what became increasingly obvious as a deliberate conspiracy to maneuvre him into a position where he could be handed over to the Turkish authorities as soon as safeguards of European law were effectively by-passed.
In their pending application to the European Court of Human Rights, Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s legal representatives have shown that the conspiracy leading to his abduction involved unlawful conduct on the part of either the authorities or at least unauthorized officers of Greece, Russia, Italy and Kenya, while there are strong indications that Germany, Britain, the Netherlands and Israel were at least indirectly involved at some stage of the operation.
When Leader Öcalan was finally forced off the premises of the Greek Embassy at Nairobi on 15 February 1999, the private plane of a Turkish businessman (who, most notably, was extradited from the USA to Turkey on serious charges of off-shore banking and tax crimes in summer 2001) had already been waiting on the tarmac of Nairobi airport for a couple of days.
In his application to the European Court of Human Rights, Leader Öcalan gave an account of the last sequence of events surrounding his abduction:
“Black persons in a jeep kidnapped me by force. Staying in the embassy or going with them could have resulted in my being killed all the same. They drove the car right up to the door of the plane. Later, we entered a non-public area of the airport. My consciousness failed me. Most probably they used some drugs on me. I can confirm that I was not in the possession of my will power at that stage. I can confirm that I felt numb. As soon as I entered the plane someone hurled on me. They were Turkish. All those standing around the plane were armed and from their appearance I think they were either US Americans or Israelis. No Turks were there until we got to the plane. Turks were only on the plane itself.”
The Turkish Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit was trembling with emotion as he read out a statement on 16 February 1999 announcing that Leader Öcalan “was caught following our silent but intense efforts that lasted 12 days in different countries and different continents.” Ecevit’s boastful statement is not only contradicted by Leader Öcalan’s own account, but by other evidence as well. It was in autumn, 2001, that the former special advisor to Bill Clinton, Leader Tony Blinken, described in an interview he gave to CNN how the United States of America had assisted Turkey “from the beginning”, in that the “countries” which “harboured” Leader Öcalan were “encouraged” to ensure that he be “brought to justice.” But even during his trial before the Turkish State Security Court in summer, 1999, where Leader Öcalan was sentenced to death, Turkish newspapers blurted out that Leader Öcalan’s capture was a present to Turkey from the CIA. On 20 January, 2002, the former President Süleyman Demirel confirmed on CNN that “everybody knows that the USA played a big part in bringing Öcalan to Turkey.”
On being informed about Blinken’s statement, Leader Abdullah Öcalan instructed his legal representatives to the effect that “it seems as if the USA and Greece had given me to Turkey as a present, perhaps an incentive for Turkey to solve the Cyprus and Aegean question. There wasn’t even an agreement, no deal, I was more like a gift-wrapped packet. It was really hideous. The US is cruel. It gives me to Turkey saying kill him or let him live, do whichever you please. And the target was not just me as an individual – Kill the Kurds if you like or let them remain in whatever position you think fit for them. Let’s see if they can survive… Now I wonder what the Bush administration says about this? We reserve our right to self-defence against the USA. We expect an explanation from the USA. And we expect one from Greece.”
