International Initiative
Freedom for Ocalan – Peace in Kurdistan
P.O. Box 100511, D-50445 Koeln
E-Mail: info@freedom-for-ocalan.com
Url: www.freedom-for-ocalan.com

Cologne, 12 February 2004

INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVE BRIEFINGS:
The Ocalan Case: 5 Years Of Solitary Confinement - Litmus Test For A Democratic Solution Of The Kurdish Question

February 15 is a black day for a major part of the Kurds. It was exactly this day five years ago that the Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan was abducted from Kenya to Turkey in a cloak-and-dagger operation. For a short time it seemed that the Turkish-Kurdish conflict might escalate. Even the protagonists of this clandestine operation were surprised by the massive world-wide Kurdish protests. All this happened after an odyssey between Damascus, Moscow, Athens, Rome and Amsterdam that lasted for weeks marking the criminal end of an illegal act of piracy which had involved CIA, MIT and Mossad - the miserable failure of an ominous European legal culture.

February 15th, 1999 was also the day that a new chapter was opened on the Turkish-Kurdish conflict. Any hopes that the Kurdish rebellion might collapse after this sudden decapitation soon proved mistaken. While an escalation still seemed imminent Abdullah Ocalan did something that until then nobody had believed to be possible. In spite of the death sentence that was already looming ahead of him he put forth his hand and offered peace calling on the Kurdish rebels to end the bloody war unilaterally. At the same time he demanded a radical democratisation of Turkey and that the Kurds’ right to their own culture and language must be recognised. It was this peace offer that opened the European door for Turkey and eventually resulted in its official EU candidacy. However, there is an indispensable precondition for the beginning of accession negotiations: the complete implementation of the “Copenhagen criteria”. And this exactly is the crux that represents the entire Turkish dilemma.

The year 2004 will point the way ahead for both Turks and Kurds. The Turks will receive a decision in September whether and when accession talks with the EU will be opened; the Kurds will learn whether the recent reforms that till today seem rather cosmetic will result in a real solution. Although Turkey has enacted a number of laws giving the Kurds some rights the Kurdish question itself remains unsolved yet. Mere trust in the effectiveness of the Copenhagen criteria in terms of a possible democratisation process has proved insufficient so far. The human rights situation is still unsatisfactory to say the least. Torture is still systematic and endemic. Oppression of the opposition is still the order of the day. The reform laws have not yet arrived in reality. A major obstacle in this process is formed by the anti-Kurdish resentments of the Turkish political elite. They see all Kurdish efforts towards emancipation – whether in North-Iraq, Syria, Iran or Turkey - as an attack on Turkey’s national unity. Only if Turkey understands that a diversity of cultures and languages does not pose a threat but can also be welcomed as an enrichment only then the reform laws will come alive. Until today the Turkish politicians and the Turkish military have confined themselves to avoiding what they thought the most horrible scenario: the official international recognition of the Kurds. Thy are even ready to make major concessions in the Cyprus issue. However, any such policy misses the essence of a true problem solving approach. It only increases the complexity of the issue. A real democratisation of the region is hardly possible with this approach and will remain mere fiction anyway without a solution to the Kurdish question.

In this context the argument about the inhumane solitary confinement of the Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan is coming to a head and becomes particularly important. It is five years now that he is imprisoned on the Turkish prison island of Imrali. His health is seriously affected which is why he demands to be transferred into another prison. He also demands to be examined by an international team of independent doctors. The European Council’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture also demands that the solitary confinement must be ended. Turkey, however, refuses to comply with these demands. This behaviour might suggest that the death sentence he had been given in 1999 is now to be executed in instalments since the capital punishment has officially been abolished meanwhile. The Kurds will not tolerate this. They understand Ocalan’s treatment as a litmus test for the Kurdish question, for a democratic solution within the boundaries of the countries which Kurdistan is a part of. A large part of the Kurds still sees Ocalan as a warrant for peace.

In fact, the past five years have shown that he still has an important initial function in the struggle for a peaceful solution of the conflict. It is safe to assume that a solution of the Kurdish question in Turkey will be closely connected to the future fate of the Kurdish leader.

This is why the international community and the international public must assume a more active part. Turkey must put an end to Ocalan’s solitary confinement. Even if demands for Abdullah Ocalan’s release do not appear to be realistic today and may only become so in the course of a real solution of the Kurdish question – common political sense says that they must be upheld.