House arrest for jailed PKK leader not even an option, Turkish PM says

ISTANBUL

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. REUTERS Photo

The Turkish Government is not planning to modify the sentence of outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party leader Abdullah Öcalan from life imprisonment to house arrest, daily Hürriyet has reported Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish prime minister as saying.

“House arrest for Öcalan is not a question. Everything is so clear on this subject,” Erdoğan said yesterday during a press conference in Senegal, where he is wrapping up a three-country African tour.

However, the prime minister appears to have given into one concession. Erdoğan said he had ordered a television be placed in Öcalan’s room on İmralı Island, where the outlawed leader is serving a life sentence.

“The room where Öcalan stays is a 12-meter square. He has had a radio and [officials] will replace it with a television,” Erdoğan said.

Turkey’s leader dismissed all prospects of providing education in mother tongue to Kurds, stressing the fact that the government doesn’t give into changes that could cause a division in Turkey.
 
Too early to comment on the killings of three Kurdish women

At the press conference Erdoğan also expressed the need for caution following the Jan. 9 execution-style murder of three Kurdish women working at an information office in Paris.
“It is too early to comment on this issue. We should wait for the incident to be investigated,” Erdoğan said.

“We have an ongoing process against terrorism in Turkey; this might be a provocation to harm the process, or an internal feud … we don't know yet,” Erdoğan said.