HDP deputy calls for end to jailed PKK leader’s isolation

ANKARA

AA photo

A deputy from Turkey’s Kurdish-focused party has called for an end to the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and continuation of the long-stalled Kurdish peace talks.

“We demand substantial steps be immediately taken toward the freedom of Öcalan,” the state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Peoples’ Democratic Party deputy Dilek Öcalan as saying.

“We do not accept arbitrary violations of rights secured by law,” said Öcalan, who happens to be a niece of Abdullah Öcalan, who is serving an aggravated life sentence on the island prison of İmralı on the Marmara Sea.