​​​​​​​Leader Abdullah Ocalan: My life in Imrali Island Prison - 1

The regime of torture and strict isolation against leader Abdullah Ocalan on Imrali Island is one of the main agendas of the peoples of Kurdistan and the Middle East and the democratic, revolutionary and free circles.

Leader Abdullah Ocalan has been arrested in Imrali since February 15, 1999, as a result of the international conspiracy against him. In addition to the torture regime, he is deprived of the rights granted to him by international laws and the Turkish state. His family and lawyers are not allowed to visit him, no information has been received about him since the twenty-fifth of March 2021.

In front of this torture regime, leader Abdullah Ocalan highlighted a historical resistance that guides all peoples to the path of freedom and equality. What kind of regime prevails in Imrali? How does the leader Ocalan struggle there? And what did the leader come up with there, and how does he live?

Leader Abdullah Ocalan answers these questions in the fifth volume of his pleadings, which is titled "The Kurdish Issue and the Solution of the Democratic Nation in Defense of the Kurds, who are caught between the jaws of cultural genocide."

In the last chapter of the volume, titled “About My Life in Imrali Island Prison,” written on December 22, 2010, these topics are explained in detail.

The assessments of leader Abdullah Ocalan in five parts.

*I did not explain how I endured loneliness and how much I resisted the isolation that the regime prepared and applied to me only.

I haven't touched much on my personal life in all my written pleadings and oral conversations until now. Except for my occasional health problems and my relationship with the prison administration, I did not explain how I tolerated loneliness and how much I resisted the isolation that the regime had specially prepared and applied to me only. I think the most curious subject is my experiences in life with regard to this absolute unity and immutability. I still remember that one of the village elders, who was considered a jurist and sage, said while observing my movements and actions when I was a child: “Lo li ciyê xwe rûne, ma di te de ciwa heye?”, which means: “Sit in your place.” Do you have mercury?" As is known, mercury is a viscous, flowing liquid. And I was a lot of movement.

Accordingly, if the mythological gods thought of punishing me, they would not have thought - it seems - of a severe punishment as much as it is to chain me to the rocks of Imrali. Yet here I am, completing my twelfth year in solitary confinement.

*My mind and will would determine my steadfastness

Imrali is historically famous for being an island where sentences of high-ranking state officials are applied. Its climate is very humid and harsh, and is close to destroying the structure of man physically, in addition to solitude within a closed solitary room, its destructive effect on the structure increases. Besides, I was transferred to the island on the threshold of old age. I was kept under Special Forces Command surveillance for a long time. I believe that the oversight of the "Ministry of Justice" has been in effect for the last two years. I had no means of communication, except for a few books, newspapers, and magazines, and one radio broadcasting station.

Of course, my world of communication consisted of visiting relatives for half an hour every few months, and the weekly meeting with lawyers, which was often forbidden under the pretext of “bad weather.”

Surely, I do not underestimate the impact of this on communication. But it cannot form enough relationship to endure. So it was my mind and will that determined my steadfastness.

All these experiences are not enough to show what strength of endurance I have inside Imrali

I had prepared myself for loneliness since I was free. And I became an expert in transcending close relationships, whether with family, relatives, comrades, and close friends. Despite the importance of the relationship with the woman, I was stripped of this relationship as well. That is, I was the complete opposite of "Nazem Hikmat". I vowed never to father a child. And since I was in high school, the title of the compositional topic for which I got ten marks from the literature teacher was as follows: “You are my child who will never be born!” It seems that I wanted with this compositional theme to deal with the hard life of my childhood. But all these experiences are not enough to show what strength of endurance I have inside Imrali.

So how could I bear the separation and distance from the will of millions

I will not pass on the matter without mentioning another point, namely, that the plot plotted against me in the course of my command was of such a kind that it does not leave even a glimmer of hope. Sentencing me to death and keeping psychological warfare on the agenda for a long time served this purpose. Even I, in the early days, could not imagine how I would bear to be here. Forget about the passing of the years, but I could not imagine spending only one year here. So I had an idea: “How can you put millions of people in a narrow room!” As a national Kurdish leadership, I had already made myself, or had to make myself a new composition containing millions under the conditions of my imprisonment. And so the people saw me. While a person was unable even to bear separation from his family and children, how could I bear the separation and distance from the desperate will of millions for union and unity for a long period that may not end with a meeting!

They wouldn't even give me the people's letters written in a few lines.

They were not even giving me the letters of the people written in a few lines. With the exception of some rare and strictly censored letters of arrested comrades, the greater part of which is not given; I have not yet received any letter from someone outside the prison, except in some exceptional cases. Nor could I send any message outside the prison. All these things may explain to some extent the situation resulting from abstraction and solitude. However, there were aspects of my site. I was like the person who urged the Kurds to accomplish many "firsts". And all those mid-starts were necessary steps on the path of a free life. I motivated all of our people to make the first breakthroughs in all social fields. but I could not deliver any of them into safe hands, or leave them in proper conditions. Imagine the case of a lover who achieved his necessary breakthrough for his first love, but his hands remained stuck in the air, while the fire of love was kindling in his heart. Thus, the breakthroughs of freedom that I achieved in the social fields remained suspended in the air. As I almost melted from the severity of my preoccupation with the fields of societal freedom, so that I did not leave behind something called "me". The period of imprisonment began at such a moment on the social level.

a.k

ANHA