German police prevent a demonstration for "Freedom for Öcalan" in Berlin

The police prevented a demonstration in Berlin in support of the worldwide campaign "Freedom for Öcalan and a political solution to the Kurdish question".

The German police stopped a demonstration in Berlin on Saturday evening prematurely and broke up the gathering of several hundred participants on the grounds that images of Abdullah Öcalan were shown and slogans were chanted in favour of the Kurdish leader. The organisers criticised the police's actions as unacceptable. In protest against the prevented demonstration, the participants organised a spontaneous sit-in.

The demonstration was organised by the Dest-Dan Women's Council and the Free Kurdish Community in Berlin (Nav-Berlin) in support of the global campaign "Freedom for Öcalan and a political solution to the Kurdish question". The campaign calls for Abdullah Öcalan to be released and for him to be given the opportunity to take part in talks to find a solution to the Kurdish question. There has been no sign of life from the PKK founder, who has been imprisoned on the Turkish prison island of Imrali since 1999, and his three fellow prisoners Hamili Yıldırım, Ömer Hayri Konar and Veysi Aktaş since March 2021. Their lawyers and relatives also have no access to them.

Nav-Berlin co-chair Hüseyin Yılmaz made a speech and said, "As long as the physical freedom of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan is not ensured, there will never be good days for the Kurdish people and the peoples of the Middle East. We will not stop our activities until the physical freedom of Mr Öcalan is ensured. We will never forget the mentality that took part in the international conspiracy. This mentality is also banning the march we are organising here today for Mr Öcalan. We will never step back in the face of these bans."