Hüseyin Baybaşin has been in prison for nearly thirty years. While it is time for a 70-year-old person to regain his full freedom, today the deprivation of freedom of a 70-year-old person has turned into an indefinite punishment and his detention in solitary confinement for months can no longer be seen as just a criminal law discussion. This is now on a completely different level.
There is a human life out there. No political calculation, no inter-state relationship and no bureaucratic justification is more valuable than human life. We do not and will not accept this openly punishing intent on a person's life. It should now be very clear that Baybaşin's freedom was blocked upon Turkey's request and that this was linked to his failure to step back from his political views advocating the independence of Kurdistan, and the Dutch authorities must be held publicly accountable for acting in accordance with the Turkish Republic regime. A state of law cannot put the political demands of a totalitarian regime, which has been repeatedly convicted in the European Court of Human Rights for crimes against humanity, before the fundamental rights of a person; cannot turn the law into a tool to break a person's will. A person's freedom cannot be bargained for in return for giving up his political thoughts; no conscientious individual committed to universal values can accept these. If the real obstacle to his freedom after thirty years is his refusal to back down from his ideas, this is not justice, but unacceptable state pressure that forces a person to give up his political will.
Most importantly, the life of a person over the age of 70 cannot be played with so cheaply. The moment the state deprives a person of his freedom, it assumes a heavy responsibility to protect his life, health and human dignity. This is a universal moral requirement of being a state of law. Authorities must immediately ensure that Baybaşin's age and health condition are evaluated by independent physicians, explain the legal and humanitarian justifications for his solitary confinement, and open the necessity of his continued deprivation of liberty to a real and independent judicial review, and Hüseyin Baybaşin must be released. There will be no value in waiting for a person to be irreversibly harmed or killed and then producing justification; No court decision, no state statement and no apology can bring back a lost life. The Dutch State must give up this illegal attitude.
You do not have to agree with Baybaşin's political thoughts; But in order to defend a person's right to life and rights before the law, it is not necessary to think the same as him/her, you must adhere to the law and universal human rights values. The Netherlands has signed as a state that it will adhere to these principles. The Dutch State should know that if these conditions continue and an irreversible result occurs, the Kurdish People and the people who adhere to universal human rights values will react the harshest to this. We will not allow Türkiye and the Dutch State to play so cheaply with a person's life, and we will save Hüseyin Baybaşin from this captivity. This issue is no longer just the issue of Hüseyin Baybaşin: it is the test of whether the law is surrendered to political calculations, whether human dignity is prioritized over state interests, and whether a state of law is truly committed to its own principles. We call on everyone, especially the Kurdish People, to be problematic and stand by Hüseyin Baybaşin.
On Behalf of Yekitiya Dewleta Kurdistan
Barzan Bayhan