Minister Tunç-DEM meeting concludes! Message that 'isolation must be lifted' for Öcalan

The meeting between the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) delegation and Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç has concluded.

The DEM Party delegation arrived at the Ministry of Justice at 10:30 AM. The delegation included DEM Party Parliamentary Group Deputy Chairs Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit and Sezai Temelli, as well as the Co-Deputy Chair and Co-Spokesperson of the Law and Human Rights Commission, Öztürk Türkdoğan.

WHAT IS ON THE TABLE?

The DEM Party's primary agenda will be legislative amendments. Given that it is known the People's Alliance is preparing a judicial package, the DEM Party delegation will present a file to Minister Tunç during the meeting containing proposals for legal regulations and amendments, based on the premise that this package should also address the needs of the ongoing process.

EXECUTION LAW AND STATE OF EMERGENCY PRACTICES

Among the DEM Party's demands is the "lifting of the isolation on PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan and the improvement of Öcalan's living conditions." It was stated that the file to be presented by the DEM Party includes proposals for amendments to the Law on the Execution of Sentences regarding sick prisoners, convicts, and those whose parole has been revoked. Pointing out that court sentences are sometimes disregarded and that penalties can be imposed through Administrative Observation Board decisions, they will demand that this be eliminated.

The delegation, which is expected to draw attention to the inequalities created among convicts by the regulations made in relevant laws during the Covid-19 pandemic and to argue that political prisoners should also benefit from these regulations, is also said to be conveying its demands regarding the Anti-Terror Law (TMK), the appointment of trustees, and state of emergency (OHAL) era practices to Minister Tunç. Stating that they will express the view that the TMK should be abolished automatically if the process that began on February 27 evolves into a "peace process," the DEM Party delegation will share their proposals for amendments to the TMK in the first stage.

NEW CONSTITUTION NOT YET ON THE PARTY AGENDA

DEM Party sources stated that a new constitution is not on their agenda, assessing that "There are things to be done before moving to a new constitution. Once those are done, constitutional discussions will naturally follow."

POSTPONED MEETING

DEM Party İmralı Delegation member Pervin Buldan, Sırrı Süreyya Önder, and the party's group deputy chairs were scheduled to meet with Yılmaz Tunç on April 18.

However, the meeting was postponed due to the heart condition Önder experienced on April 15 and his ongoing treatment process.

It was clarified that due to Önder's health status and Pervin Buldan's need to host incoming visitors, the group deputy chairs and Türkdoğan would meet with Tunç.

STATEMENT AFTER THE MEETING

The DEM Party delegation is making a statement following the meeting.

Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit made the following statements:

"Dear members of the press, first of all, we greet you all with respect. Today, our Group Deputy Chair Sezai Temelli and our Co-Deputy Chair responsible for Legal Affairs, Öztürk Türkdoğan, held a meeting with the Minister of Justice. This meeting was actually planned after our İmralı delegation's meeting with the President. But unfortunately, we postponed it due to the illness of our İmralı delegation member and Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Sırrı Süreyya Önder, and today we held this meeting without them. On this occasion, we would like to convey our get-well wishes once again to our friend Sırrı Süreyya Önder, our Deputy Speaker of Parliament and member of the İmralı delegation, who is resisting his illness in bed, and reiterate that we continue our hopeful wait.

We had the opportunity to discuss the contributions this process will make and the legal regulations on a broad basis, in light of the discussions that have been ongoing since October.

I would like to state that our primary topic of discussion, our priority topic, was the working and health conditions of Mr. Öcalan, who is in İmralı and who opened the door to a new era in Turkey with his February 27 call, enabling us to cross a new threshold in the democratic resolution of the Kurdish issue.

We expressed to the Minister that Mr. Öcalan cannot contribute to this process under isolation conditions, that Mr. Öcalan's conditions are the most important issue for the progress of the process, and that these conditions must be corrected immediately, without any ifs or buts. I think we will have the chance to see some developments in this regard in the coming period.

Apart from this, we underlined that it is very important for different delegations, different members of parliament, different political parties, intellectuals, writers, and journalists to go there, and for some intellectuals, writers, and journalists whom Mr. Öcalan wants to see and meet with to go to the island and be in contact with him.

In this sense, we stated that the ministry should take rapid steps in this regard. Of course, apart from this, as you know, there are very broad problems regarding the justice system in Turkey. We had the chance to address these comprehensively as well.

One of the most important fundamental topics for us is the issue of sick prisoners currently in prison. We all know that this is not truly humane, conscientious, or legal. In that sense, we expressed our views and thoughts to them regarding the need to make a regulation for sick prisoners quickly and to release those who have already received forensic medical reports from prison rapidly.

We conveyed our demands on this issue to them. Again, as you know, there is an execution package regulation in the legal arrangement known to the public as the "Covid Law," which actually regulated the conditions for conditional release from prison during the Covid pandemic period but exempted organized crimes.

We expressed to them that the issue of exempting organized crimes there should be eliminated and that an egalitarian approach covering everyone should be observed.

Again, especially in this execution package that will come before us, as you know, there was a clause regarding committing a crime on behalf of an organization without being a member of the organization, which the Constitutional Court had previously cancelled.

The Constitutional Court had returned it, but unfortunately, it was regulated and passed in the same way as it came from Parliament. Now we have received some information that it is being put into the package again. We expressed to them our expectation that this must be eliminated without any ifs or buts, that it is never acceptable, and that a regulation in accordance with the Constitutional Court's decision should be made in this sense.

In this sense, especially regarding one of the biggest problems, the issue of prisoners remaining in prison despite having served their sentences due to Administrative Observation Board decisions, based on completely subjective and arbitrary grounds, we expressed to them that these administrative observation boards should be reformed, reviewed, and democratized, and that all these observation board decisions should be made according to objective criteria. We expressed that a regulation stating that these boards—which are actually a second punishment mechanism—should be democratized and their decisions should be based on objective criteria must be included in the first legal package to come.

Beyond all this, we also see that disciplinary punishments received by prisoners due to actions and activities they carried out to improve prison conditions, beyond the arbitrariness of administrative observation boards, are also a criterion in the matter of being on good behavior. In this sense, we expressed to them that it is unacceptable for these disciplinary punishments to be truly re-regulated, and for even the actions a prisoner takes because they want prison conditions to be improved to be included in the scope of a disciplinary offense, especially for this to be taken as a basis for conditional release and for this provision to be taken as a basis."

News Source: 12punto