Öznur Değer 

 

ANKARA - Calling for the prisoners who have been on hunger strike for 201 days to end the isolation on PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, the legal organizations called for the isolation to end as soon as possible, saying; "This is the beginning of the policy of isolation, in other prisons, and in fact, the policy of ruling the whole society with a policy of isolation."

 

Political prisoners held in 107 prisons in Turkey and the cities of the region have been on an indefinite alternating hunger strike since November 27, demanding the end of the ongoing isolation on PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan and an end to the violations of rights in prisons. The government, which ignores the demands of the prisoners on hunger strike, which has left 201 days behind, increases the violations of rights with new practices and regulations it has expanded in prisons.

 

Lawyer Arzu Kurt, member of the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), Nuray Çevirmen, member of the Human Rights Association (İHD) Prison Commission, and Ayşegül Çağatay, member of the Contemporary Lawyers Association (ÇHD), called for the prisoners’ demands to be met as soon as possible and the isolation to end.

 

‘Isolation problem is at the forefront of rights violations’

 

Nuray Çevirmen, a member of the İHD Prison Commission, stated that there are a series of violations of rights in prisons and emphasized that this is getting worse. Emphasizing that the isolation is one of the leading violations of rights, Nuray noted that the prisoners are constantly on hunger strike demanding the isolation to be lifted. Drawing attention to the increasing violations of rights in the recent process, Nuray said: ‘’The situation of sick prisoners, the failure to meet their referral requests, the kept alone of those who are not convicted aggravated life sentence and in the pandemic process, there are many violations of rights such as lack of access to health facilities and quarantine wards. In addition, the problem of isolation is an important problem. Unfortunately, despite all the demands, the government does not take a positive step in this regard. During this process, we demand an end to all violations of rights, an end to isolation, the ensuring the right to meeting, and the elimination of all violations of rights in prisons before the prisoners experience permanent health problems.’’

 

‘Reflections of oppression on the public in prisons’

 

Expressing that the violations of rights in prisons are the private policy of the government, lawyer Ayşegül Çağatay from ÇHD said that these are the reflections of the oppression against the public in prisons. Pointing out that the violation of book and publishing rights, isolation, denial of conversation rights, bans of visitation and solitary punishments are increasing day by day, Ayşegül said: ‘’The unbearable isolation on the prisoners has become a policy of personality destruction. Unless we do something outside, the prisoners continue to resist with their bodies inside. There have been long-term hunger strikes before, we lost our clients. Currently, alternate hunger strikes continue. Do people think that there will be no harm to the health of the prisoners when it is said alternately? But it is not like that, in fact, it does a great deal of damage, causing destruction of people. If we do not prevent this, it will cause serious harm to people's health and lives. The demands of the prisoners are very simple, they demand a detention in accordance with human dignity. They demand the end of the isolation. These are meetable demands. Isolation is a sort of torture, and the isolation should be ended immediately.’’

 

‘The government applies a special policy to political prisoners’

 

ÖHD lawyer Arzu Kurt underlined that the common demand of the prisoners is to end the isolation in İmralı Prison, to end the attitudes and behaviors against human dignity and violations of rights in prisons. Arzu continued: ‘’These demands are the most fundamental rights of all prisoners, both with international conventions and current laws. There is currently a view that the most basic rights are blocked. Our objections were not accepted, especially with the changes in the execution law, keeping political prisoners out of this change, and the fact that the measures during the pandemic process we are going through will cause much more severe consequences in prisons. Even this shows us that the government has a special policy towards political prisoners. As in every law, there must be equality in cases concerning executions and prisoners. This can be read as a second method of punishment.’’

 

‘The beginning of the policy of ruling the society with isolation’

 

Arzu added that the prisoners who received many unjust and unlawful sentences were punished for the second time and with more severe conditions for these rights violations they had experienced in prisons, saying that this was one of the biggest attacks on human dignity. Stating that the ongoing isolation in Imrali Prison should be broken, Arzu said: ‘’We have emphasized many times that this policy of isolation is the beginning of a policy of ruling in other prisons and indeed the entire society with a policy of isolation. For this reason, first of all, the government should take a step in this regard by breaking the isolation that has been going on for years in İmralı Prison, meeting with the family and lawyers, as well as putting an immediate end to the torture and ill-treatment inflicted on the prisoners in violation of human dignity, and the return of their fundamental rights.’’