​​​​​​​Badran Oztürk: Turkish state responsible for murders of detainees in its prisons

Turkish occupying state continues to violate the rights of detainees in its notorious prisons in Northern Kurdistan and Turkey and continues to put pressure political prisoners, infringe on the rights of Kurdish detainees and do not release them, despite being their sentences ended, violating all international laws and covenants.

The co-chair of the Democratic Society Congress (KCD), Badran Oztürk, assessed the overall conditions in prisons and the lives of political detainees.

They're arrested because they're Kurds

Regarding the detainees and the reasons for their detention, Badran Oztürk stated: "The struggle of the Kurdish people against the policies of the obliteration and denial developed by the dominators is the main motive for the arrest of the Kurds, a policy initiated after the coup d 'état of 12 September (1980) targeting intellectuals, politicians, strugglers and Kurdish students."

"Besides the arrest policies of the 1990s, they set fire to the villages and emptied them and carried out displacement campaigns against our people, the scheme that was prepared by the AKP authority in partnership with the National Movement Party in 2014 after its defeat in the June 7 elections was to block our struggle for freedom and democracy."

"To this end, by appointing State officials as guardians of municipalities, they wanted to break and seize the will of the Kurdish people, then shut down cultural and social centres and women's institutions, arrested and denied members of these institutions and members of our political parties. Parliamentarians and Kurdish politicians were also targeted and arrested for certain Kobani-related cases and issues."

Leader Ocalan is the will of the solution

Mr. Badran addressed the isolation imposed on leader Ocalan in Imrali Prison and said: "Mr. Ocalan has been isolated for years, which has had a negative impact on Turkish society, after which the infringement of human rights has increased in Turkey, democracy has declined and the economic crisis has worsened."

Badran linked the deepening of Turkey's foreign political crisis to isolation, stating: "The parties of justice and development and the Turkish nationalist movement are trying to close the road to resolving the Kurdish issue, but we know very well that Mr. Ocalan is the will to resolve."

107 detainees whose sentences have expired have not been released

"There are approximately 1,600 detainees with poor health conditions, without access to the most basic rights. They are not cured and treated. This is another reason why detainees lose their lives. According to the statements of the Detainees' Families Committee, 107 detainees have expired their sentences and the authorities have not released them arbitrarily."

Support for detainees' struggle

Badran noted that "we know very well that detainees are arrested because they are fighting for freedom and democracy, they want to defeat their struggle and oppression in prisons", calling for support for the struggle, events and demands of detainees.

They call for the detainees' release.

On the objective of establishing the "justice shift" and its demands, Badran Oztürk stressed that the families of the detainees in Amed, Wan, Istanbul and Izmir were continuing their activities. "They call for the release and treatment of sick detainees and the immediate release of expired prisoners. These demands must not be kept solely on the families of detainees, as this system exercises injustice and oppression in prisons while at the same time trying to harm the detainees’ families."

They prevent their relatives from meeting them.

"According to the laws, detainees must be placed in prisons close to their city and relatives, but the Turkish state intentionally sends and exiles detainees to distant prisons, where their people suffer the hardship of roads and distances to see them, but ultimately prevent them from visiting."

They are trying to take away the will of the detainees.

Badran stated that "detainees face a retrogressive mindset aimed at depriving them of their will. In various ways, they try to keep detainees who have not given up their will and refused to submit to them in prisons to face death." "The conditions of most of these detainees are very poor, according to the reports of the medical committees announced so far, which have confirmed that they cannot continue in the prisons and must be released immediately, but are returned to prison by decision of the Forensic Medicine Authority (ATK)."

The State retaliates against detainees with the help of ATK

Many Kurdish detainees in Turkish occupation prisons have worsened recently, and according to Peoples’ Democratic Party data over the last eight months, more than 600 detainees are sick and 48 have lost their lives.

Badran asserted that the State was responsible for the detainees' loss of life, citing examples. The seriously ill 85-year-old prisoner Mohammed Amin Ozkan had been in prison for 26 years, and the reports of the health committees stated that he could not remain in prison but was not released.

No one can break the will of the detainees.

He stressed the need to escalate the struggle for freedom and democracy in all arenas so as to get rid of this mentality, stressing: "No one can break the will of the detainees will follow path Mazloum, Kamal and Khairy.

T/ Satt.

ANHA