Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to the Turkish Government on the imprisonment of Abdullah Ocalan.

​The former Minister for Europe raised this issue most recently on 13 May with the Turkish Ambassador. The United Kingdom has encouraged the Turkish authorities to implement the recommendations made by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) following their previous visit to the prison in 2016.

The British Government engages closely with Turkey to encourage the full protection of fundamental rights, including with regard to the treatment of detainees. I emphasised the importance of these issues when I met the Turkish Ambassador in September. We shall continue to monitor the situation closely and maintain our support for legitimate and democratic Kurdish groups in Turkey.