Öcalan’s lawyer Newroz Uysal recalled the words by Turkish Justice Minister Abdülhamit Gül who said about the possibility to meet with Öcalan there there was “no legal obstacle,” and added that then the answer for this new prevention must be political. Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan has been prevented from seeing his lawyers since 18 June 2019
‘Not the law but policy is causing the problem’
Speaking to ANHA, Uysal said: “As it happened every times, the reason for the obstacles in negotiations today as well is not legal, unfortunately it is political. In this sense, the reason for the obstacles to negotiations is arbitrary and a political choice.”
‘New situation: applications receive no answer’
Lawyer Uysal reminded that except for three meetings held in June, the other applications have not even received any answers from the prosecutor’s office.
“We only received an answer – she said – when the application was accepted. But since the last meeting, all applications have remained unanswered.
This is a new situation in the applications made to visit Imralı island. Previously, our applications were rejected with a reason, being this the boat not functioning well, or the weather conditions, or the State of Emergency or again the judge’s decision. In April 2019, the judge’s decision to deny visits to lawyers was abolished. Despite this, our request for visits has not been accepted for a while now and in fact no answer was given to our applications.”
Preventing meetings takes us back to square one
Uysal said that indeed the pessimism in the society started to dissipate with the meetings that took place in Imralı and people started to look to the future with hope. “The meetings with Mr. Öcalan would have provide a positive picture in the approach to the solution. However the prevention of the visits does nothing but taking us to square one, and put obstacles on the way towards a solution.”
Uysal pointed out that isolation had great destructive results politically.
The lawyer added that isolation in Imralı is clearly still in force.
Mr Öcalan had said, in the meeting in which he asked activists and prisoners to end their hunger strike, that he needed the visits to continue for a period of 30-40 days. Uysal said that this calendaring was related to the close conjunctural agenda in one aspect and to the political position that Öcalan expresses as “Imralı stance’.
Uysal said that the Imralı stance expresses the will of a dignified peace and democratic politics and added: “This stance marked every meeting we had with Mr. Öcalan in Imralı. Therefore, for Mr Öcalan, this meant the continuation of the visits by the lawyers and families. And the meetings meant the establishment of a ground on which he could express his ideas and initiatives in line with the Imralı stance. In this respect, he called both the democratic public and the government to be prepared and invited them to a solution-oriented approach.”
The time is up!
Lawyer Uysal said: “Mr. Öcalan cares about understanding the approaches towards him. He also cares about the current and superficial approach to the problems related to the history and fate of the geography he has been discussing. We think that it gives 30-40 days to cover all of these issues. This period has now passed. Together we will see what will happen now.”