İmralı, Breath, and Doctors

Turkey has detained PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan under total incommunicado isolation since March 2021 on the tiny island of Imralı, set in the Marmara Sea. The air is thick, humidity high, and doctors have noted the detrimental effects of the intense climatic range on his health. In an article published by Özgür Politika, physician and Kurdish academic Dersim Dağdeviren compares the environmental and political pressures experienced by Öcalan, to the wider, pressing need for climate action and international peace.