November
29, 2009
ANKARA, Turkey, — Kurdish rebel chief
Abdullah Ocalan, serving a life sentence in Turkey,
has complained about prison conditions after other
inmates were brought to his island jail, a news
agency reported Friday.
The founder of the outlawed Turkey Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) had been the sole inmate of a
high-security prison on Imrali island until Turkey
transferred five other prisoners there about 10 days
ago.
Ocalan was also transferred to a smaller cell.
The pro-Kurdish Firat News agency reported that the
61-year-old had told his lawyers that his breathing
had been affected.
"I can't breathe here any more because of the
ventilation, I suffer from breathing problems. My
condition is worse than before," he was quoted as
saying. |
Jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan. He was only
prisoner on the Imrali Island in the Turkish Sea. On
November 17, 2009 Turkey transferred five inmates to
the prison island where Kurdish rebel leader
Abdullah Ocalan has been held for years in
isolation, a step coinciding with government moves
to boost Kurdish rights.. |
|
"I don't know how
long I can stay in these conditions which make
me feel like a man who is half dead and half
alive," he said.
The new inmates were brought to the prison in
the Sea of Marmara,www.ekurd.netnorthwestern
Turkey, after Council of Europe criticism that
Ankara was violating Ocalan's human rights by
keeping him in solitary confinement.
They are all convicted members of the PKK, media
reports said.
Ocalan had been the sole prisoner on the island
there since 1999.
According to Turkish law, Ocalan can mix with
the new prisoners during a weekly 10 hours of
communal activities.
Ocalan, founder and leader of the PKK, was
condemned to death for treason and separatism in
1999.
The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment
in 2001 following Turkey's abolition of capital
punishment as part of reforms to embrace
European Union norms.
Since 1984 the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the
mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey
(Turkey-Kurdistan) which has claimed around 45,000
lives of Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas. A large Turkey's Kurdish community
openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population
as a distinct minority.
"The Kurdish question cannot be resolved without
recognizing the will of the Kurdish people and
holding dialogue with its interlocutors," the group
said in a statement carried by the pro-Kurdish Firat
news agency.
The PKK has long called on Ankara to halt military
operations and agree to negotiations for a solution,
which it says should include official recognition of
the country's Kurds in the constitution.
The PKK demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds'
identity in its constitution and of their language
as a native language along with Turkish in the
country's Kurdish areas,www.ekurd.net
the party also demanded
an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, ranting them full
political freedoms.
The government categorically rejects dialogue with a
group it labels a terrorist organization and says it
will not let up on the military campaign against the
rebels. The PKK is considered a 'terrorist'
organization by Ankara, U.S., the PKK continues to
be on the blacklist list in EU despite court ruling
which
overturned a decision
to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its
political wing on the European Union's terror list.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population
as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural
rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish
language and private Kurdish language courses with
the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish
politicians say the measures fall short of their
expectations.
The European Union, which Turkey wants to join, has
praised Erdogan's efforts to end the conflict. His
so-called democratic initiative aims to expand
cultural and political liberties to address decades
of grievances from Kurds who say they have faced
state-sanctioned discrimination and violence.
Copyright,
respective author or news agency, AFP | Agencies
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