The ‘Long March’, which is organised every year to demand the physical freedom of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan, started in Germany on Monday. The route of the Long March this year is between the cities of Bielefeld and Duisburg in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). The action is taking place as part of the global campaign "Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan and a political solution to the Kurdish question" launched in October last year. Kurdish and internationalist activists will be taking to the streets in Bielefeld, Hamm, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg, where the action will conclude on 20 September.

Before starting the march in the city centre of Hamm today, the activists gathered in front of the central railway station and read a statement exposing the isolation and genocide system in İmralı Island Prison where Öcalan has been held since his handover to Turkey as a result of an international conspiracy on 15 February 1999.

The activists, who expressed that they would continue their struggle with determination until Abdullah Öcalan was physically freed and a free Kurdistan was achieved, are welcomed with great interest on their route.

During the demonstration, leaflets about the detention conditions of Abdullah Öcalan, who is subjected to torture, isolation and genocide in İmralı, were distributed to the people in the neighbourhood. 

After the statement, the activists started to walk through the streets of Hamm, chanting the slogans ‘Bijî Serok Apo’ (Long Live Leader Öcalan) and ‘Bê Serok Jiyan Nabe’ (No Life Without the Leader).

Tomorrow's route of the Long March will be Dortmund, where more people are expected to participate in the action.