A new controversy has erupted in Turkey over the allocation of a “villa” to the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, Abdullah Ocalan, on the island of Imrali, where he is imprisoned, in addition to his demand for official status in the “peace process” based on dissolving the party and disarming it. After previous allegations about the establishment of a private compound on the island located in the southern Sea of Marmara, west of the country, about 50 kilometers from Istanbul, which includes a house and an office, allowing Ocalan to work freely and meet with politicians and journalists within the framework of his role in the “peace process and democratic society,” which the government calls the “Terrorism-Free Turkey Process,” a confirmation came from the head of the Nationalist Movement Party, the main partner of the ruling Justice and Development Party in the People’s Alliance, Devlet Bahceli, Regarding “constructing a building that will provide Ocalan with decent living conditions.”
In an interview with journalist Nacihan Alci from the Turkish T24 news website, Bahceli specified the building’s specifications, saying that it is “a house with a front garden, providing decent living conditions and home comforts, in which he can live in a way that suits the natural lifestyle.”
Alçi gave more details about the house, which the Turkish media called a “villa,” saying, “The house that Mr. Bahçeli mentioned is a building inside Imrali Prison that is still under construction, with a front garden inside an area surrounded by a fence, part of which is designated as a green area for agriculture, and another part is being prepared, perhaps for practicing sports, and the building consists of two floors. Basement designed as a work space, meeting room and office. The upper floor is designed as a living area.”
Bahceli confirmed that Ocalan does not want to move to this house “because he wants social status first,” adding that Ocalan is awaiting the formation of the “Disarmament and Strategic Coordination Committee” emanating from the Monitoring, Follow-up and Coordination Council headed by the Vice President of the Republic, Cevdet Yilmaz, which held its first meeting on August 24 last year. He wants status, and he wants to go home after he sees the implementation of the “Framework Law” (the law on strengthening national solidarity and social integration approved by the Turkish Parliament on August 10), and the start of the work of the committees.
Work continues to complete the formation of 4 committees that the Council decided to establish, namely “Judicial and Legal Coordination”, “Follow-up and Monitoring”, “Social Harmony and Integration”, and “Disarmament and Strategic Coordination”, and to determine their working mechanisms during the current month of September, in preparation for the start of their work with the start of the new session of Parliament on the first of October, when a parliamentary monitoring committee will be established.
Sources in the ruling “Justice and Development” Party ruled out granting Ocalan any official status or direct membership in any of these committees, pointing out that he may contribute to the work of the “Disarmament and Strategic Coordination” Committee, given his important role in the disarmament phase, after repeated demands from the Kurdish side, and the head of the “National Movement” Party, Devlet Bahceli, to give him the role of general coordinator of the “peace and politicization process.” There was no comment from the government on Bahceli’s statements about Ocalan’s house and his police, but the former representative of the Justice and Development Party in Istanbul, journalist Shamil Tayyar, confirmed that Ocalan is insisting on his request to determine his status first, but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan does not want to take any step in this direction before the process of completely disarming the Kurdistan Workers’ Party is completed.
There were reports of disagreements within the ruling “People’s Alliance” regarding Ocalan’s status, in light of Bahceli’s insistence on this issue. The head of the AKP parliamentary group, Abdullah Guler, said: “In the future, visits of academics and journalists to Imrali can easily be organized in accordance with administrative regulations.” The Democracy and Equality for Peoples Party delegation, known in the media as the “Imrali Delegation,” which includes the party’s two deputies, Bervin Buldan and Medhat Sancar, and the lawyer from the “Asrin” company, Faiq Ozgur Erol, will visit Ocalan in Imrali prison, on Monday, to discuss developments related to the peace process and the application of the framework law.
The Turkish journalist specializing in the Kurdish issue, Alp Arslan Ozdemir, commented on Bahceli’s statements regarding Ocalan’s house and his demand to determine his role, saying that if this is true, it means that “we are facing a serious problem in the peace process in Turkey,” because although the disarmament of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party has not yet been completed, and has not been verified in a way that guarantees the confidence of public opinion, the requirement of its founding leader to determine his personal status to complete this process contradicts the logic of peace. It is not permissible to use the political situation as a pressure card in disarmament negotiations, and similar global experiences have not witnessed precedents for such a matter. He explained that if the issue is not limited to improving living conditions in Imrali, and if a political or institutional situation is actually being discussed, this must be made clear to the public, because there is a state of mistrust towards the PKK’s commitment to disarmament.
According to a Metropol poll conducted last August, only 25.8 percent of participants said they believed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s commitment to lay down arms, compared to 69.5 percent who did not believe that.
Ozdemir promised, in an article on Sunday, that in such an environment, the belief that “Ocalan seeks a status, and will not take any steps before determining his status,” according to what Bahceli stated, may cause severe damage to the already fragile societal trust, because that will not be a reward for peace, but rather a reward for weapons, explaining that Ocalan’s future position cannot be discussed except within the general framework of peace, and without hiding it from public opinion. Otherwise, the message directed to the Turkish people will be extremely dangerous, which is that “The longer you keep weapons, the higher your level of political negotiation will be.”
