The Co-Presidency of the KCK Executive Council released the following statement on April 4, birthday of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan.

"April 4: Our people, the people of the Middle East and all humankind celebrate the birthday of our Leader.

Leader Apo knows that throughout his entire life he has been a good son for the peoples and humankind. People who have lived meaningfully have always taken their place in history. With meaningful life and struggle, he has brought great values ​​and done a great service not only to the Kurdish people but also to the peoples of the Middle East and to the entire humankind. While celebrating the birthday of our Leader, we want to underline with gratitude the meaningful values ​​he has brought to us and to our people. Whatever we do, and aware of the fact that we will never be able to pay our debt to our Leader, we are once again promising that we will succeed in Kurdistan and the Middle East, by improving the struggle in the Leader’s line.

Leader Apo gave every moment of his life to secure a free and democratic life for his people. He gave every moment of his life for women to have a free and democratic life. No second of the life of Leader Apo has passed without meaning. He did not even live a single second for himself. He breathed for his people. He breathed for the humankind. He is a model and an example of how to live for the people. Everyone who lived for a few hours in the company of the leader believes that the struggle for freedom led by him will be won.

Leader Apo set out the path for the Kurdish people's struggle towards freedom and democracy, and this struggle has proved to be a model and a reality for the liberation of the entire Middle East and peoples of the world. The fact that the Kurdish people's freedom struggle and the freedom struggle of the peoples of the region are inextricably intertwined has converted Leader Apo into the leader of all Middle Eastern peoples.

It would be a woman liberated and ecological and democratic society, such as envisaged by Leader Apo, that will lead the peoples of the Middle East towards freedom and democracy. Leader Apo has put in their place, ideologically and theoretically, all the blind minds that try and deter the peoples of the Middle East from free and democratic life. If the Kurdish and Middle East revolutionary democratic forces would struggle following this line, free and democratic life will surely be established.

Leader Apo put women's freedom struggle at the center of freedom and democracy passion and struggle so that they’ll be worthy of women who are leading the way in creating this historical society, its nature-bound values.

The Kurdish and Middle Eastern peoples could only attain freedom with a deep passion for freedom and democracy in the freedom of women, and have developed and enlarged this struggle. In this respect, the birth of Leader Apo was also the birth of the revolution for women's freedom. The women's liberation struggle has never got a great contribution from no one, not even in the mythology. Women would know, more than any other group, the commitment of this Leader to justice and rightful qualities and consciences.

The birth of Leader Apo has meant the rebirth of the Middle East from its own ashes. This Leader, who has helped the defenseless Middle East culture and social reality to stand up in their own right, today see the Middle Eastern peoples to develop the struggle following his line. Leader Apo has made the Middle East a center of free and democratic life. The Middle East, just like Leader Apo, also experienced a rebirth.

Leader Apo embodies the reality of a Leadership which needs to be understood and put in practice today. He developed this line with his entire life and ideological and theoretical struggle. All the Kurds and the peoples of the Middle East, especially women and young people, should be more aware of this Leadership and put into practice the power of its meaning. If this is done, the Middle East will be a source of freedom, democracy and democratic socialism in the form of Kurds and the peoples of the region.

Leader Apo has defeated both the old and new despots of history with the ideological and theoretical power he has developed, the struggle he has conducted and the institutions he has created. The attainment of this freedom and democratic life through the people’s struggle he led has written history."