Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Feb. 28 urged that the call by imprisoned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan for an end to the organization's decades-long insurgency against Türkiye serve as a catalyst to end the systematic misuse of terrorism charges against government critics in the country.

Öcalan founded the PKK in 1978, and the party waged an insurgency against Türkiye for four decades, with approximately 40,000 killed in the conflict. The PKK has been declared a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US, the EU, and other nations. Öcalan has been imprisoned on the island of Imrali since his capture in February 1999 for violating the controversial Article 125 of Türkiye’s Penal Code. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2002. 

The call for peace comes as thousands are detained or on trial over alleged links to the PKK, based on legal activities. These include politicians Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, who have been imprisoned since November 4, 2016, despite European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rulings mandating their release.

The ECHR has repeatedly held that such detentions violate Articles 5, 10, and 3 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, responsible for overseeing the implementation of ECHR judgments, has issued several directives regarding Türkiye’s non-compliance with the politically motivated detentions of opposition figures.

In February, the Istanbul Chief Prosecutor's Office arrested 10 local politicians over alleged PKK membership. According to HRW, 50 more people have been placed under investigation for their alleged involvement with the legal Kurdish-aligned Peoples' Democratic Congress (HDK) party.

From JURIST, March 1. Used with permission.

See our last posts on the PKK insurgency and the crackdown on political opposition in Türkiye.