Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-04-27.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will discuss with the government of Turkey the early release of Abdullah Öcalan, in the light of his long solitary imprisonment, so as to assist the resumption of peace negotiations.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We have no plans to discuss this particular case with the Government of Turkey. Abdullah Öcalan is the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a terrorist organisation proscribed in the UK that has killed over 350 people in violent attacks since July 2015. We have supported the peace process initiated by the Turkish government and hope the process can be restarted soon.