NEWS CENTER – In a new "action plan" submitted to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe regarding “aggravated life imprisonment,” Turkey once again reiterated that Abdullah Öcalan is excluded from the “right to hope.”
On March 18, 2014, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found that sentencing Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan to aggravated life imprisonment without the possibility of conditional release (the right to hope) was in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The ECtHR called on Turkey to make the necessary legal amendments.
The ECtHR later issued similar rulings in the cases of prisoners Hayati Kaytan, Emin Gurban, and Civan Boltan. However, despite the 11 years that have passed, Turkey has not taken any concrete steps to comply with the violation rulings.
On August 9, 2022, the Asrın Law Office, Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), Human Rights Association (İHD), Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV), and Society and Legal Research Foundation (TOHAV) submitted a request to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CoE CM) for the implementation of the ECtHR judgment. In response, Turkey stated that “it is possible for prisoners sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment to be conditionally released, but some offenses are exceptionally excluded from this possibility.”
At its meeting held on September 17–19, 2024, the Committee of Ministers once again placed the ECtHR violation rulings on its agenda for the first time in three years. The Committee called for the necessary measures to be taken without delay and warned that if no action is taken, an interim resolution will be drafted at its September 2025 meeting.
NEW ‘ACTION PLAN’
As September, the deadline indicated by the Committee, approaches, Turkey has submitted a new “action plan.”
In the action plan dated June 27, 2025, the ongoing isolation of Abdullah Öcalan is ignored, and it is asserted that “no other individual measures are necessary.”
Under the heading “Conditional Release,” it is stated that aggravated life imprisonment is “exceptional” and that those sentenced under this regime are not eligible for conditional release. Thus, Turkey signals that it has no intention of making any legislative changes concerning the “right to hope.”
In a statement made in May, Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç also declared, “There is no such situation” regarding Abdullah Öcalan’s “right to hope.”
Turkey has submitted similar “action plans” in previous years as well, consistently asserting that Abdullah Öcalan and others sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment are “excluded” from the “right to hope.”