Mike Arnott, secretary of the Dundee Trades Union Council sent a letter to Dr. Ian Borg, Chair of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, regarding the “Right to Hope.”
On 15 September, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe will consider the case of Abdullah Öcalan, particularly in relation to the ‘Right to Hope’. Mike Arnott wrote: “In 1999 Abdullah Öcalan was abducted and imprisoned in Imralı Island Prison, where he was sentenced to death by a special military court. In 2002, with the abolition of the death penalty in Turkey, his sentence was commuted to aggravated life imprisonment — a life sentence with no possibility of conditional release. It is understood that this aggravated life sentence, which had never previously been used in the Turkish penal system, was introduced specifically for Öcalan, but later extended to hundreds of other political prisoners as well.”
Arnott added: “The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has twice (2003/2005 and 2014) issued judgments condemning the Turkish state for violating Öcalan’s rights. However, to date, the Turkish state has taken no steps to implement these rulings. Particularly significant is the Court’s 2014 ruling that life sentences without the possibility of release violate the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment, and that relevant legal reforms must be enacted to recognize the ‘Right to Hope.’ In practice, this means Öcalan’s case must be reviewed and mechanisms must be created to allow for the possibility of release.
In September 2024, the Committee of Ministers, when reviewing Öcalan’s case, gave Turkey one year to implement the Court’s rulings. The Secretariat was tasked with preparing measures to be taken if Turkey failed to comply within the year. Over the summer, Turkey announced that it would not recognize the ‘Right to Hope’ for prisoners sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment, including Abdullah Öcalan. The situation is now perfectly clear, and the time has come for the Committee of Ministers to act.”
Arnot continued: “As the chief negotiator in the ongoing process for ‘Peace and a Democratic Society’ and as the legitimate representative of the Kurdish people, Öcalan must be allowed to fully participate in the process and therefore must be released. The success of this process will have far-reaching consequences for the wider region, paving the way for similar processes that strengthen peace and democratic societies. In the context of the Middle East, where wars between nation-states increasingly consume the lives of its peoples, insisting on peace and democratic self-governance becomes even more vital, offering solutions to many of the current crises.
We urge your Committee to seize this opportunity, to press the Turkish Government to comply with the rulings of the ECHR, and to secure the release of Öcalan.”