ÖHP: 'We Want Resolution, Not Death'

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The Platform for Libertarian Lawyers (ÖHP) has announced its report about the ongoing hunger strikes in prisons in the Marmara Region and the rights violations in prisons, in a press statement at the Human Rights Association (İHD) İstanbul Branch.

ÖHP members Raziye Turgut, Sinan Zincir, Ahmet Oral Çelik and İHD İstanbul Branch Chair Gülseren Yoleri was present at the press statement.

The ÖHP stated in the report that the inmates' health conditions are getting worse and the government should immediately act, using peaceful means for resolution.

'Problems cannot be solved by creating a space outside the law'

Sinan Zincir has said in the press statement that in many prisons across Turkey, the necessary weight and pulse measurements are not done and the inmates are not allowed to go to the sickroom.

"The inmates' demand is loud and clear: We want Abdullah Öcalan (Leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, PKK) to be given the rights which were granted by the laws of the Republic of Turkey.
We want the laws to be applied.

"Abdullah Öcalan, just as any other inmate, can meet with his attorneys during work hours on weekdays. It is the state, not hunger strikers, who act illegally.

"The problems cannot be solved by the creation of a space outside of the law. There can be deaths in prisons. We do not want death, we want peace. I call the political will to take steps before the protests in prisons result in deaths."

"The state does not apply its own laws"

Speaking after Zincir, İHD İstanbul Branch Chair Gülseren Yoleri has said that they want the laws to be applied and the isolation in prisons should end.

"Today, we are talking about inmates who began hunger strikes because they are left with no other option to make a law implemented.

"We are talking about the pathetic state of the state today. Because we are talking about a state that does not apply its own laws. We as right defenders, underpin the dignity of the right to life.

"We all know the results of the application of isolation, which is a method of torture. The grave consequences of systematical isolation are visible on all the inmates today.

"Both to protect the inmates' right to life and the form the public order through peace and equality, I think the state should have an approach to this problem." (HA/VK)