Kidnapped 25 years ago, Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan has been detained
by the Turkish state ever since. Several tens of thousands of peoplegathered in Cologne on February 17 to demand his release and provide
their internationalist support for the Kurdish movement. ---- On
February 15, 1999, Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan and three of his
comrades were captured by the Turkish secret services in Kenya and
placed in total isolation in the prison on the island of Imrali, in the
northeast of the Turkey[1]. His last contact with the outside world was
a brief five-minute phone call with his brother in March 2021. The
Turkish government with this kidnapping wishes to silence the
anti-imperialist fight of the Kurdish people, but for eight years the
European Kurdish community has been organizing every year the Long March
for the release of Öcalan as part of the international campaign "Freedom
for Abdullah Öcalan". This year, the march arrived in Strasbourg on
February 15, 25 years after the capture of Abdullah Öcalan.
More than 500 activists and supporters from all over France, Germany,
Switzerland, Italy, Spain and even Bolivia converged this Thursday,
February 15. During this march, we could hear slogans such as "Political
solution to the Kurdish question", "Siamo tutti PKK" (we are all the
PKK[2]) or "Brick by brick, wall by wall, make Imrali prison fall"
(brick by brick, wall by wall, we will bring down the walls of Imrali
Prison) showing international support for the Kurdish cause.
The demonstration ended at the Council of Europe, a European
organization supposed to defend Human Rights, where many CRS trucks were
present. Several speakers then took the floor to demand the release of
Öcalan and a political solution to the Kurdish question.
Severe repression by Germany
On Friday night, after a day of conferences in Strasbourg on the
detention of Abdullah Öcalan, buses went to Cologne for the last day of
the Long March. More than 50,000 demonstrators were present, despite
Germany's severe repression against the Kurdish movement. During the
demonstration, groups continued to arrive, because the police sometimes
blocked their buses for hours. Certain slogans like "Bijî Serok Apo"
(long live leader Öcalan) were banned during this demonstration and the
German police, present in large numbers number, intervened several times
in the demonstration which was nevertheless peaceful. This
criminalization of the Kurdish movement in Germany aims to preserve
economically and historically strong German-Turkish relations.
In recent weeks, the Turkish army has been carrying out high-intensity
attacks against Kurdistan targeting civilian infrastructure (energy,
food, health) and using NATO weapons. In this context, we must more than
ever express our international solidarity and demand a political
solution to the Kurdish question from our governments, complicit in the
capture of Abdullah Öcalan and the situation of the Kurdish people.
Antoine (UCL Alsace)
To validate
[1]"Imrali's position: a democratic political solution is essential",
Serhildan.org.
[2]artiya Karkerên Kurdistan, Kurdistan Workers' Party.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Politique-10287
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