Aysel Tuğluk, one of the prominent Kurdish politicians known for her struggle and the first female co-chair of a political party in Turkey, has been held in Kocaeli Kandıra F Type Closed Prison for more than 5 years. Since the racist attack on her mother’s funeral on September 13, 2017, Tuğluk's health condition has started to deteriorate. The veteran politician and human rights lawyer has recently been diagnosed with dementia.

 

Aysel Tuğluk is unfit for detention, according to an expert opinion from the Kocaeli University Hospital issued seven months ago. The report states that she is unable to continue her life on her own under detention conditions.

 

In late January, a competent court ordered a three-week placement in the Institute of Forensic Medicine (ATK). The court had given the Forensic Institute in Istanbul three weeks to investigate Tuğluk’s "fitness for detention". However, the institute, which is notorious for its close ties to the AKP/MHP regime and its political decisions, sent the politician back to prison after only three days earlier this month.

 

The result of the expert opinion came out on Tuesday. The decision has been submitted to the 22nd Heavy Penal Court of Ankara where Tuğluk stands trial.

 

The 25-page report prepared by ATK Observation Expertise Department stated that Tuğluk was kept under observation from the 1st to the 4th of February. The report also mentioned the previous evaluations of Kocaeli State Hospital and ATK regarding the case of the Kurdish politician.

 

The report argued that “the person in question slept and ate regularly, conformed with her surroundings and showed no behavioral disorder.

 

The report also cited Tuğluk’s account that she was imprisoned because of her dissenting identity, that she was never involved in armed action, that she has been behind bars for five years and has been suffering from memory loss for almost two years.

 

The conclusion part of the report listed the accusations directed at Tuğluk in the Kobanê Trial and noted that mild cognitive impairment had been confirmed. The report finally presented an opinion of “complete penal responsibility” for the Kurdish politician.

 

FORENSIC MEDICINE AS A POLITICAL INSTITUTION

 

Last March, a report prepared by nine experts from the forensic department of Kocaeli University stated that Aysel Tuğluk was no longer fit to be imprisoned due to chronic and progressive Alzheimer's dementia and should be released from prison immediately. The competent ATK, an institution of the Ministry of Justice, has made a contrary determination and has so far seen no reason for a suspension of the execution of the sentence. The Institute of Forensic Medicine did not even respond to a court-ordered detention examination in the context of the Kobanê trial at the end of October. In December, Reyhan Yalçındağ then applied for a third expert opinion, which was granted. A committee was set up at the state hospital in Kocaeli and Aysel Tuğluk's condition was re-examined. Based on the results of this report, ATK apparently felt compelled to agree to an in-depth examination of Tuğluk's fitness for detention.

 

BACKGROUND

 

Aysel Tuğluk has been in prison since the end of 2016. The lawyer, who represented Abdullah Öcalan among others, has already been convicted in several cases, and other trials are still pending. In February 2020, the Turkish Court of Appeal confirmed the highest prison sentence of ten years' imprisonment against Tuğluk. The 56-year-old was convicted of "leading a terrorist organization" due to her role as co-chair of the grassroots alliance Democratic Society Congress (DTK). In the so-called Kobanê trial in Ankara, she faces an aggravated life sentence.

 

Aysel Tuğluk is the founder of several non-governmental organizations such as the Social Law Research Foundation (Toplumsal Hukuk Araştırmaları Vakfı), the Human Rights Association (İnsan Hakları Derneği, IHD) and the Patriotic Women's Association (Yurtsever Kadınlar Derneği). Tuğluk is also one of the co-founders of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (Demokratik Toplum Partisi, DTP), of which she was leader for a time. The DTP was banned by a decision of the Constitutional Court in 2009. Most recently, she sat in parliament for the HDP and was the party's deputy chair until her arrest almost five years ago.

 

In September 2017, an attack by a Turkish mob on the funeral of Hatun Tuğluk, the mother of Aysel Tuğluk, sparked worldwide outrage. Hundreds of racists and nationalists attacked the funeral in Ankara with stones and shouted hate slogans against the Armenian and Alevi minorities. The body then had to be exhumed because the mob had threatened to desecrate the corpse. A few days later, Tuğluk was buried in Dersim and her daughter was not allowed to say goodbye as the prison administration had not given her a second special permit.