Abdullah Öcalan has been imprisoned on Imrali’s Island for more than 18 years, to have led his people towards freedom and emancipation.
No sea and no walls could break the faith and the commitment that the Kurdish People and the revolutionaries of the middle east had put into their Serok. Contrary to what Turkish fascist governments expected , the imprisonment of Serok Apo did not break the Kurdish Movement, but in the opposite he continued to be the source of inspiration of his people to struggle against oppression and for a democratic society.
Today there is worrying news surrounding the health of Abdullah Öcalan. For two days, rumors had been spread by Turkish media that the leader Abdullah Öcalan has died in prison, regarding this situation, it is imperative to clarify this question. The Statements of the State Prosecutor of Bursa are not in any way credible.
It is a fundamental right of his family, his legal representatives and the Kurdish people to be informed of his health. The kurdish movement made a call that we allow ourselves to reproduce below:
- We call on the Committee for Prevention of Torture (CPT) to intervene to ensure that the necessary information needed in this situation is obtained.
- We call on all Kurdish and democratic groups to take action and demand an explanation as to Öcalan’s health and security situation.
- We call on the international forces which handed Öcalan over to Turkey on 15thFebruary 1999 to intervene in the name of humanity and in the light of their collective responsibility for his captivity and later trial which was found to be unfair and his subsequent psychological torture, under European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).
The resistance of Abdullah Öcalan and it’s Liberation is not a question limited to Turkey, Kurdistan or the Middle-East. Turkeys repressive policies, like the apartheid in South-Africa are not only local questions limited to a geographic space. The day of the liberation of Nelson Mandela was a day of joy for all Africa and for all the people who were not willing to accept the racist and discriminative rule of Pretoria.
The release of Abdullah Öcalan and all the political prisoners in Turkey is the hope of conscientious people from all over the world. The internationalists who came from all around the globe to defend the revolution and fell in Rojava are the incarnation of those hopes, and their sacrifice will not be in vain.
Demonstrations are taking place all over Europe and all over Kurdistan. In London, in Strasbourg, in Bruxelles men and women are standing side by side to call for the end of this oppression and the end of the complicity of our governments with the repressive policies of Ankara. It is maybe useful to remember that the arrest of Abdullah Öcalan has been organized by the collaboration of several states (Turkey, USA, Greece, Israel, Kenya)
We, the Internationalist Commune of Rojava, call for the unconditional release of Abdullah Öcalan, which will constitute the first step for ending repression and state terrorism, the removal of PKK from all terror lists and the construction of a democratic confederation in Kurdistan and in all the Middle-east.