Rozerin Gultekin

 

AMED - Gisela Penteler, a member of the International Medical Association for the Prevention of Nuclear War, who has embraced the "Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, Political Solution to the Kurdish Question" campaign, pointed out the international silence and said, "We believe that the Kurdish problem will not be solved without the freedom of Mr. Öcalan."

 

On October 10, the "Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, Political Solution to the Kurdish Question" campaign was launched simultaneously from all over the world for PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been kept under aggravated isolation on İmralı Island for 25 years and has not received any news for 33 months. The move, which was launched in 74 countries, has lasted nearly 2 months. While support and solidarity events and statements supporting the campaign continue all over the world, Gisela Penteler, a member of the International Medical Association for the Prevention of Nuclear War, one of the institutions that embrace the campaign, made evaluations about the campaign to our agency.

 

Isolation is 'torture'

 

Stating that the aggravated isolation imposed on PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan is torture, Gisela pointed out that international law was also violated with the isolation imposed. Gisela said, “Among human rights defenders, isolation is considered torture. Turkey is a part of the Convention Against Torture and has violated its obligations in many cases. CPT visited Türkiye and Imrali but their reports were not allowed to be published. That's why the contract did not yield results," she said.

 

'Abdullah Öcalan can lead the peace process'

 

Underlining that countries remain silent about the isolation and rights violations imposed by Turkey on Abdullah Öcalan due to their own interests, Gisela stated that the people came together around Abdullah Öcalan against the cooperation of the governments. Gisela noted that the German government is dependent on Turkey due to the interests of European and western states, and said, “This explains that the Turkish government remains silent about human rights violations. You see Abdullah Öcalan's photo in the homes of Kurds in Germany, Turkey, Northern and Eastern Syria. The Kurdish people see him as a leader and follow his paradigm that can create a new society that is inclusive, ecological and peaceful. Therefore, his physical freedom could lead to new negotiations and a peace process regarding the Kurdish issue."

 

'The Kurdish problem cannot be solved without Mr. Öcalan's freedom'

 

Stating that the campaign "Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, a political solution to the Kurdish problem" is an important step and that is why they took part in the campaign, she added: "We participated in the campaign because we believe that the Kurdish problem will not be solved without the freedom and participation of Mr. Öcalan, but this campaign is definitely not enough. The campaign is very important and we participated because of its importance, but it has not yet reached the mainstream media and people, for example in Germany. Information about the campaign and Mr. Öcalan's situation remains in the circle of Kurds and activists interested in the Kurdish issue. There are so many urgent problems and conflicts for the public and the press that they cannot treat the Kurdish issue as an important issue. We should all try to bring the issue into the mainstream to pressure Turkey not to ignore human rights violations and the Kurdish issue. For this reason, I call for better and more effective ways of cooperation between German supporters and Kurdish activists.”