HDP’s Response to Minister Bozdağ’s Öcalan Statement

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A response has come from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) to Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdağ’s statement that there is no problem with Öcalan’s security or health.

CLICK - NO PROBLEMS WITH ÖCALAN'S HEALTH OR SECURITY

“If you are that confident of yourself, then pave the way for the attorney or his family to check the situation there and inform outside”, HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş responded to the Bozdağ’s statement.

HDP İmrali Delegation member and Group Deputy Chair İdris Balüken in his interview to the Fırat News Agency said, “The minister’s statement is a precautionary effort against the increasing public sensitivity about Mr. Öcalan”.

Hunger strike announcement

The Democratic Society Congress (DTK), Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK), Free Women Congress (Kongreya Jinên Azad /KJA), Democratic Regions Party (DBP) and HDP in their joint statement had expressed that they had been unable to get news from Öcalan for 510 days.

Stating that the groups had been unable to get news from Öcalan for 510 days, the statement announced that if no meeting was provided with Öcalan within the framework of the legal rules, 50 volunteers would begin an indefinite hunger strike from September 5.

Demirtaş had claimed in his statement on Friday that a clash had taken place on the İmralı island where Öcalan is being kept.

Noting that Öcalan must meet an attorney, Demirtaş said “What is the harm in one of Öcalan’s attorneys having a brief meeting in İmralı? If you are that confident of yourself, then pave the way for the attorney or his family to check the situation there and inform outside”.

İdris Baluken expressed that no one has been answering their phone calls for almost three weeks which they make to receive information about Öcalan’s condition. (AS/TK)