More than 250 elected officials, academics, trade unions, civil society organisations, lawyers, and other prominent figures, have signed a letter to the incoming president of the Committee of Ministers, urging the Committee to take urgent and decisive action regarding the case of Öcalan v. Türkiye (No. 2).
In the letter, the signatories call on the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to ensure the implementation of the 2014 European Court of Human Rights judgment in Mr. Öcalan’s case and to uphold the “right to hope.” Aligning Türkiye’s execution-of-sentences regime with its human rights obligations would not only impact Mr. Öcalan’s case, but would also constitute an important step toward democratisation and the rule of law, with implications for thousands of prisoners held under the same legal framework. In the context of the ongoing peace process in Türkiye — in which Mr. Öcalan continues to play a key interlocutor role — such a step is essential to the success of the process itself.
Representing 20 countries, including more than fifty elected officials at all levels of governance, 20 trade unions, and a broad range of civil society actors, this latest petition joins many others submitted in recent years: from the letter sent last summer by 88 Nobel Prize laureates to the Presidency of the Committee of Ministers, to the hundreds of lawyers who have applied to visit Mr. Öcalan.
Today, the letter states, the ongoing peace process presents a unique and unprecedented opportunity for peace and democratisation through a resolution of the Kurdish Question in Türkiye. For this opportunity to succeed, Mr. Öcalan must be free to fulfil his role as a key representative of the Kurdish people, and that his fundamental rights must be respected.