ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A delegation from the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) is expected to arrive on Turkey’s Imrali island today and meet with Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Pervin Buldan, Idris Baluken and Sirri Sureyya Onder, who are members of the Turkish parliament, are to deliver to Ocalan the outcome of their meetings with PKK leaders in the Qandil mountains and Turkish officials.
It is also reported that the delegation will consult Ocalan about HDP’s next convention and the party’s candidate for Turkey’s presidential elections.
Meanwhile, Ocalan’s lawyers say they are stonewalled by the Turkish high court in their efforts to push for a “retrial” for Ocalan.
Rezan Sarica, Cengiz Yurekli and Mezlum Dinc, Ocalan’s three lawyers, had prepared a 26-page report, hoping to reopen the case of the PKK leader and persuade the Turkish judicial authorities for a retrial.
However, the Turkish justice ministry said recently that they will not change the sentencing or review the law “because it will cause opposition within Turkey.”
The general prosecutors at Ankara court decided, based on article 322 of the Turkish criminal law, to reject a retrial or lift the sentence on Ocalan.
The PKK leader was sentenced to life in 1999 on terrorism charges and he is serving his sentence on Imrali island.
The European Human Rights court had previously asked for a retrial.
“Turkish attorneys admit that Ocalan’s sentence was not just,” Yurekli told Rudaw in a previous interview. “That is why I say that he should be retried.
The PKK and Ankara started a peace process in March 2013, after several years of talks between Kurdish and Turkish leaders in Oslo and sometimes in Erbil. The process seems to have slowed down in recent months, but HDP MPs still meet occasionally with PKK and Turkish leaders, hoping to maintain the peace that led to the quietest year in Turkey in many years.
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