ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Abdullah Ocalan’s lawyers have again appealed to Turkish authorities to visit him in jail, according to media close to the PKK leader. They submitted their request on the 19th anniversary of Ocalan’s arrest, which Kurdish politicians have been prevented from publicly marking.
Ocalan’s lawyers have submitted over 725 requests to visit the jailed leader since July 27, 2011, ANF reported.
Ocalan’s brother, Mohamad, visited him in his island Imrali prison on September 11, 2016. Before that, his family was last able to visit him on October 6, 2014 and a delegation from the pro-Kurdish HDP party visited him on April 6, 2015. His lawyers have not been permitted to meet with him since 2011.
Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party HDP was planning to give a statement to protest his imprisonment, but police in Diyarbakir province prevented them from doing so.
A Kurdish political group in Germany with ties to the PKK, the Democratic Society Centre for Kurds in Germany (NAV-DEM), planned to carry out protests on Wednesday and Thursday in Cologne, but their requests were denied by city authorities, according to DW’s Turkish edition.
Germany considers the PKK a terrorist organization. Cologne police said NAV-DEM is an extension of the PKK.
The group accused Germany of “kneeling to Erdogan” and “restraining the political activities of the region’s second biggest refugee group.”
NAV-DEM, in a statement on its website, argued the decision to prevent their planned protests was made because Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim is visiting Germany.
In a press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday, Yildirim said the PKK issue should not impact ties between the two countries.
Events to mark the anniversary of Ocalan’s arrest were held at a refugee camp in Makhmour sheltering Kurds who mainly fled Turkey in the 1990s and in Qamishlo, Rojava, northern Syria.
Ocalan, 69, was born in Omerli, Turkey to a poor family. He is affectionately called “Apo,” meaning “uncle.”
He founded the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in 1978. The party began its armed conflict with the Turkish state in 1984. An estimated 40,000 people have died in the decades of conflict.
Ocalan was running his party from Damascus, but later was warned by the Syrian government to leave the country after Turkey threatened Syria with military action.
He was arrested in Nairobi, Kenya and handed over to Turkish special forces on February 15, 1999.
The PKK is a named terror organization in Turkey, the United States, and Europe.
Ocalan’s lawyers have submitted over 725 requests to visit the jailed leader since July 27, 2011, ANF reported.
Ocalan’s brother, Mohamad, visited him in his island Imrali prison on September 11, 2016. Before that, his family was last able to visit him on October 6, 2014 and a delegation from the pro-Kurdish HDP party visited him on April 6, 2015. His lawyers have not been permitted to meet with him since 2011.
Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party HDP was planning to give a statement to protest his imprisonment, but police in Diyarbakir province prevented them from doing so.
A Kurdish political group in Germany with ties to the PKK, the Democratic Society Centre for Kurds in Germany (NAV-DEM), planned to carry out protests on Wednesday and Thursday in Cologne, but their requests were denied by city authorities, according to DW’s Turkish edition.
Germany considers the PKK a terrorist organization. Cologne police said NAV-DEM is an extension of the PKK.
The group accused Germany of “kneeling to Erdogan” and “restraining the political activities of the region’s second biggest refugee group.”
NAV-DEM, in a statement on its website, argued the decision to prevent their planned protests was made because Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim is visiting Germany.
In a press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday, Yildirim said the PKK issue should not impact ties between the two countries.
Events to mark the anniversary of Ocalan’s arrest were held at a refugee camp in Makhmour sheltering Kurds who mainly fled Turkey in the 1990s and in Qamishlo, Rojava, northern Syria.
Ocalan, 69, was born in Omerli, Turkey to a poor family. He is affectionately called “Apo,” meaning “uncle.”
He founded the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in 1978. The party began its armed conflict with the Turkish state in 1984. An estimated 40,000 people have died in the decades of conflict.
Ocalan was running his party from Damascus, but later was warned by the Syrian government to leave the country after Turkey threatened Syria with military action.
He was arrested in Nairobi, Kenya and handed over to Turkish special forces on February 15, 1999.
The PKK is a named terror organization in Turkey, the United States, and Europe.
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