NEWS CENTER – Making a statement on the decision of the Council of Europe Committie of Ministers, Asrin Law Office stated that the legalisation of the “right to hope” by the Parliament in line with the decision would be a solution to structural problems. 

 

Asrin Law Office made a statement regarding the "right to hope" decision of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers. In the statement, it was stated that in the interim decision taken by the Committie, the date of June 2026 was pointed out by referring to the Peace and Democratic Society Process:

 

"In its interim resolution adopted at its meeting on 15-17 September the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe referred to the peace and democratic society process in Turkey and pointed to the June 2026 deadline.

 

First,we find it important that the in its decision, Committee recommends the evaluation of the legislative proposals previously prepared by political parties and submitted to the Turkish Grand National Assembly (Turkish Parliament) as a solution proposal. In the case of our client Mr Ocalan, the 27 yeas of imprisonment under severe isolation conditions and the ECtHR decision defining this imprisonment as ‘torture’ have not been fulfilled for 12 years. Considering this issue, the most practical and reasonable solution seems to be to address the existing legislative proposals in the Turkish Parliament. It is also important that the Committee emphasises 25 years as the maximum period for the supervision of the execution of aggravated life imprisonment. 

 

However, by giving Turkey a deadline of June 2026, the Committee continued to provide grounds for Turkey’s policy of protracting the issue, which has been in place since 2014. In this context, we would like to stressed that Mr Ocalan, in his lawyer meeting on 15 September, pointed to the Committee and stated, ‘If they are serious and sincere, they can play a role for a solution, if not, they will prefer the stalling method’. 

 

By referring to the ongoing process in Turkey, which gives us all hope, as a method in its interim decision, the Committee recognises that Turkey’s approach to the issue is political rather than legal. Unfortunately, it did not display an approach that corresponds to this observation. We would like to reiterate that the right to hope is a structural problem of Turkish law and involves thousands of prisoners. 

 

The Committee attributed significance to the commission established within the Parliament within the framework of the ‘peace and democratic society process’. The necessity for the Commission to act in accordance with its importance, to carry out its work on this basis and to act urgently was confirmed by the Committee’s decision. It should be noted that during our meeting with Mr Ocalan, he stated that the process had reached the stage of a legal solution and that there was a need for interim laws. In parallel to this, it is important to note that during the meetings of the parliamentary commission, especially academics have stated that legal guarantees are necessary for negative peace to turn into positive peace and that peace can only become permanent in this way. 

 

 

In the light of these findings, it is obvious that the first step should be the regulation on the right to hope. It would be a solution to the structural problmes of Turkey’s national legislation, as required by the interim decision of the Committee of Ministers, for the Turkish Parliament to urgently enact will the legislative proposals on the right to hope. A solution in this direction will undoubtedly contribute to the acceleration of the peace and democratic society process. 

 

18.09.2025

 

Sincerely,

 

ASRIN LAW OFFICE”