Jailed Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş has called on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to end the “isolation” imposed on Abdullah Öcalan, jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and let him speak in the wake of Erdoğan’s recent claims about a rift between the two Kurdish figures, Turkish media outlets reported.
Erdoğan surprised many when he said at a party meeting last week that Demirtaş will have to “give an accounting” to Öcalan, using the names of the prisons where they’re incarcerated, Edirne and İmralı, respectively, and hinting at a rift between the two.
Demirtaş responded to Erdoğan from prison through his lawyers and said he would only give an accounting to an independent judiciary.
Speaking to the Yeni Yaşam daily about Erdoğan’s remarks, again through his lawyers, Demirtaş suggested that Erdoğan should end Öcalan’s “isolation,” which refers to his inability to speak with his lawyers for years, and let him make a statement regarding the recent allegations.
“How do you know what Mr. Öcalan, whom you have kept in isolation for years, said? Then, end the isolation, let Öcalan meet with his lawyers and his family regularly, [and] let’s find out together what he has to say,” Demirtaş said, adding that it wasn’t “moral” for Erdoğan to impose severe isolation on Öcalan and at the same time speak on his behalf.
The former HDP leader said Erdoğan’s claims were aimed at creating confusion among the country’s Kurdish population before the June 2023 general election and that nobody should believe or take seriously such “nonsense rhetoric.”
When asked his thoughts on whether Erdoğan’s statements were just comments or if they were based on information received during a recent meeting with Öcalan, Demirtaş said he had no concrete information that there had been a meeting with Öcalan. “The only thing we know is that the isolation has been going on for years in its most extreme form,” he said.
