IHD: Enable contact with Öcalan!
The Amed Human Rights Association has called for the immediate removal of Abdullah Öcalan's isolation.
Saturday, 27 Apr 2019, 16:19
In the Human Rights Association (IHD) in Amed (Diyarbakir) an event was held by relatives of the "disappeared". Like the Saturday Mothers in Istanbul, people in the Kurdish metropolis of Amed meet weekly to ask questions about the whereabouts of their relatives who disappeared after arrest by state forces.
As an open-air public gathering is no longer possible given the repression in the Kurdish region, the relatives meet in the premises of the IHD branch office, today for the 533rd time. They were joined by board members of the IHD and the CHP provincial politician Mehmet Sayin.
IHD Amed branch chairperson Abdullah Zeytun read a statement on the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan and the ongoing hunger strikes, saying "As a human rights association, we have already stated that the isolation policy is unlawful and must be ended immediately. Laws cannot be restricted to individuals. The visit ban for Öcalan's relatives and lawyers must be lifted immediately."
Zeytun further explained that the appeals made to the IHD made it clear how critical the situation of the hunger strikers is by now. He said many prisoners were hospitalized but they refused medical treatment and were returned to prison. Zeytun pointed to the responsibility of the government and condemned the police attacks on protests by the relatives of prisoners.
Subsequently, the fate of Mehmet Ertürk was discussed, who disappeared in 1989 after getting arrested in Cizre and was later found dead. Nobody has been convicted for the murder of Mehmet Ertürk.
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