The meeting between the Peoples' Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party delegation and Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç ended. The DEM Party delegation made a statement after the meeting which lasted for about 2 hours at the ministry building. DEM Party Group Deputy Chairperson Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit stated that they held talks on the contributions that the ministry could make to the process. 

 

‘OCALAN'S CONDITIONS MUST CHANGE’

 

Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit said, “I would like to state that our primary topic of discussion is the working conditions and health conditions of Mr. Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı, who opened the door to a new era in Turkey with his call on 27 February and enabled us to take a new threshold in the democratic solution of the Kurdish question. In this regard, we stated to the minister that Mr Öcalan cannot contribute to this process under isolation conditions, that Mr Öcalan's conditions are the most important issue for the progress of the process and that these conditions must be corrected without any buts. We will have the chance to see some developments in this regard in the coming period.”

 

ILL PRISONERS 

 

Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit said: “There are very serious problems with the justice system in Turkey and we had the chance to address this in a comprehensive manner. One of the most important main topics is the issue of ill prisoners. We know that this is neither humane nor legal. We also expressed our views and thoughts on the rapid regulation for ill prisoners, and that they should be released from prison quickly by making arrangements in the field of Forensic Medicine Institution (ATK) reports. We conveyed our demands on this issue.” 

 

Stating that the legal regulation regulating the conditions of conditional release during the coronavirus period but exempting “organised crimes” was also on the agenda, Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit said, “We also expressed to them that the issue that exempts these organised crimes should be eliminated and an egalitarian approach that covers everyone in real terms should be considered. Again, especially in the execution package that will come before us - as you know, the Constitutional Court has canceled it before - there was the article ‘committing a crime on behalf of the organisation without being a member of the organisation’. The Constitutional Court had returned it. But unfortunately, it was organised and passed in the same way as it came from the Parliament. Now we have received some information that it is to be included in the package again. In this sense, we again expressed to them our expectation to make a regulation in accordance with the decision of the Constitutional Court.”

 

ADMINISTRATIVE OBSERVATION BOARDS 

 

Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit stated that they conveyed to the minister that the Administrative and Observation Boards, which prevent the release of prisoners, should be reviewed and democratised. Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit said, “In addition to this, we also conveyed to them that all the decisions of these observation boards should be made according to objective criteria. We have expressed that the structure of this board, which is a second punishment mechanism, should be democratised and a regulation should be included in the package that the decisions should be made according to objective criteria.” 

 

Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit pointed out that the disciplinary penalties imposed on prisoners were also on the agenda and said, “We expressed that these disciplinary penalties should be reorganised in real terms and that it is unacceptable that even the actions of prisoners demanding the improvement of prison conditions are included within the scope of a disciplinary offence.” 

 

KOBANI CASE 

 

Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit then answered the questions of journalists. Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit, to the question “What was the minister's response to the regulations you asked for regarding the isolation of Mr Öcalan and the execution law?”, said: “We had the opportunity to talk about all these issues. The minister took note of them carefully. There are already common determinations for all of us regarding some legal regulations. Everyone knows very well that there are many unfair, unjust, unequal legal regulations. For example, when the law was passed, the pandemic was something that only covered judicial prisoners. There was a risky situation for everyone, but organised crimes were exempted. For example, we expressed the unfairness and unacceptability of this. They stated that they would work on this issue. They took careful note of every title we said and we confirmed that they would work on this issue and that we would exchange views on this issue in the coming period. We also made evaluations on the Kobani Case and other topics.”