A Kurdish organisation on Sunday said Turkish authorities let Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), see his brother to sabotage their resistance against fascism, pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya Agency reported .
Öcalan, serving a life term and being kept in solitary confinement on the Imralı Prison island in northwestern Turkey, on Saturday met with his brother Mehmet Öcalan for the first time since 2016.
The meeting was not regarding Öcalan’s solitary confinement, but a visit on his general health, pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Ömer Öcalan told the agency.
The Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), the umbrella political organisation to which the PKK and other allied Kurdish armed groups in Syria, Iran and Iraq belong, on Sunday released a written statement concerning the meeting. The organisation congratulated jailed HDP deputy Leyla Güven for her hunger strike protesting the solitary confinement of Öcalan. But, it also warned that the Turkish state's move was a "sabotage" to their resistance against fascism.
"The Jan. 12 meeting in Imralı does not mean the end of solitary confinement. The solitary confinement, as well as fascist oppression, continue. For this reason, as the Kurds and Kurdish Freedom Movement, we will continue our struggle," KCK said. "The meeting was a psychological war attempt by AKP-MHP (the ruling party and its ultra-nationalist ally) to sabotage our resistance," the organisation added.
KCK said Kurds would continue protests until the authorities break the solitary confinement on the İmralı Prison island.
Öcalan has been held at Imrali island prison in Turkey since 1999, on charges of treason for leading the armed group which has been fighting Kurdish autonomy in southeast Turkey for over 30 years.
The PKK leader has spent most of his 19 years in solitary confinement on the island, where for a number of years he has been denied access to his family, legal counsel or independent medical advice, according to his lawyers.
