Eren Keskin Right to hope is Öcalan's most natural right 

2025-04-18 13:00:30


	 

	 

	Elfazi Toral

	 

	ISTANBUL - Emphasising that the government should immediately implement the ‘right to hope’ for Abdullah Öcalan, IHD Co-Chair Eren Keskin said, "The right to hope is Öcalan's most natural right."

	 

	Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan has been held under isolation conditions in İmralı F Type High Security Closed Prison for 26 years. Discussions on the Kurdish People's Leader's ‘right to hope’ remain hot on the agenda. The ‘right to hope’ encompasses the right of people who have been sentenced to a very long prison term to hope that they will not stay in prison until they die and that they will be released from prison. In 2014, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that people who have served 25 years in prison should not be kept in prison. According to the ECtHR, a prisoner must enjoy the ‘right to hope’ and failure to do so is a violation of human rights. In addition, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CoEEC), in its meeting held between 17-19 September, once again put the violation decisions of the ECtHR on its agenda and stated that Turkey should take concrete steps and gave Turkey until September 2025 to do so.

	 

	Human Rights Association (IHD) Co-Chair Eren Keskin spoke about both the ‘right to hope’ and the developments.

	 

	Eren Keskin said, "These discussions have come to the agenda with the European Human Rights judgements. In terms of the states that are parties to the ECHR convention and have accepted the binding nature of the ECHR, Turkey is also included in this. If you, as a state, have signed the ECHR convention and accepted the ECtHR judgements as binding, you have to make this regulation. It recognises it as torture for a person to think that he will die in prison without any hope. There are also convictions against Turkey. And it says the following to states: You should make new legal arrangements to regulate this right to hope. The right to hope is an issue that is being discussed today thanks to Öcalan. But it is an area where regulation is already mandatory for people who have been sentenced to this punishment, regardless of their identity, whoever they are, whatever their political opinion. " 

	 

	'They have to make arrangements'

	 

	Eren Keskin drew attention to the importance of Abdullah Öcalan's physical freedom and said: "Öcalan is not just a person or a prisoner in prison; he is a person who has a great impact on the Kurdish people with his thoughts and is recognised as a leader by the majority of the people. Moreover, in the geography we live in today, a new peace process is being discussed through Öcalan. Öcalan is also an important figure in politics. Discussing the right to hope through him is a discussion that is long overdue. These discussions should have started in previous years and legal preparations and legal arrangements should have been made. We are in a new and different process. Some regulations will be made. On the one hand, the state is obliged to do so. In front of Turkey, I think it is necessary to change the execution system and to make arrangements on this extremely important issue discussed in the person of Öcalan."

	 

	'The right to hope is Öcalan's most natural right' 

	 

	Eren Keskin stated that the state should take ‘serious’ steps at the legal level and said, "The peace process we are talking about is a process that is being conducted through Öcalan. It is not possible to have these talks or such a process without Öcalan. First of all, the isolation on Mr Öcalan must be lifted. Because a different system has been implemented in İmralı for years, since the first day. Within the framework of the right to hope, more free living conditions should be provided and working environments should be created by taking him to another area. When the society talks about these things, it seems strange to them, they are asked ‘how can you make such demands?’. These are already the legal rights of prisoners. Öcalan's most natural right. The State of the Republic of Turkey recognises the ECtHR judgments and their binding force. It is very wrong to think that “this is being done only for Öcalan.

	 

	'Turkey has to solve this problem'

	 

	Sharing that the Kurdish issue involves all the peoples living in the Middle East, Eren Keskin said that the problems have been deepening since the foundation of the republic. Eren Keskin continued her words as follows: "The Kurdish issue is not only in our geography; it is a set of problems within the borders of four different states. Therefore, what needs to be questioned here is the approach of these four states towards the Kurdish issue. The discriminatory legal system and violence policies they apply need to be discussed. At the moment, the Republic of Turkey has to solve this problem. Because a new formation is emerging in Syria, in Rojava, which no one expected. Every movement in the four different parts of Kurdistan affects and triggers each other."