HDP Youth Assembly in Van protest punishment given to Öcalan for ‘pacing’

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Youth Assembly members protested the punishment given to Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan in 2018 with an action in Van.

Gathering on Art Street, the young activists condemned the punishment by pacing up and down the street.

Background

It has recently been revealed that Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan was subject to a disciplinary penalty in September 2018. According to the Mezopotamya Agency, Abdullah Öcalan’s family visits were suspended for three months in September 2018 because he had “paced” during his “sports exercises.” On the basis of a disciplinary investigation launched by the prison’s Disciplinary Board when Abdullah Öcalan paced with other prisoners on İmralı Island after playing volleyball and basketball, a penalty of “deprivation of visitors for 3 months” was imposed on 14 September 2018 on the grounds that “he turned sports activity into a conversation.”