COLEMÊRG – DEM Party MP and Parliamentary Justice Commission member Onur Dusunmez has called for legal reforms and the release of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan, stressing that peace in Turkey cannot be achieved while Öcalan remains in isolation.

 

Dusunmez highlighted that despite the PKK's decision to dissolve itself following Öcalan’s call for peace, "no concrete steps" have been taken by the Turkish government. “We, as the DEM Party, have said many times we are ready to pay any price for peace. But these attacks must stop immediately. The process cannot succeed through violence,” he said.

 

Dusunmez also criticized the ongoing isolation of Öcalan, noting that no lawyers or independent observers have been allowed to visit him: “Only a single family visit has been allowed during a holiday. This cannot be justified legally or ethically. Öcalan must be freed. This should be the year his physical freedom is secured.”

 

He called on the government to introduce immediate reforms to the Anti-Terror Law (TMK), Penal Code (TCK), and Criminal Procedure Code (CMK), and to release political prisoners, especially the ill and those affected by previous legal inequalities. Dusunmez said: “It is unacceptable that someone who struggles for peace is kept behind bars. Öcalan’s imprisonment must end if peace is truly the goal.”

 

Dusunmez concluded by urging Parliament to act without delay on sentencing reform and the end of trustee (kayyım) appointments in Kurdish municipalities.

 

MA / Mazlum Engindeniz