A celebration was held in Strasbourg for the 75th birthday of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan. The event, organized by the Zîn Women's Initiative, was held in the area where the Freedom for Öcalan Vigil is taking place. The vigil began in 2012. 

Zîn Women's Initiative Member Helena Dersim said: "Leader Öcalan's birthday is the birthday of the Kurdish people. Our leader devoted his entire life to the struggle for us. His birthday is also the re-awakening of a people who have forgotten their existence."

Referring to the absolute isolation imposed on Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan, Helena Dersim said: "We have not heard from our Leader for more than 3 years. It is the primary duty of every Kurd to break this absolute silence and liberate our Leader."

Sîdar Amedi, one of the TEV-ÇAND artists who attended the celebration, said that he met with his son Mazlum Içli, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Kobanê Conspiracy Case, on 3 March, and drew attention to the indefinite rotating hunger strike continued by political prisoners in prisons. Amedi said: "Today, our comrades in prison are on hunger strike to ensure the freedom of our Leader and to break the isolation imposed on him. We have to increase our actions for the freedom of our Leader."

Stating that the political prisoners continue their indefinite alternating hunger strike against the isolation, Amedi said: "We will be living in isolation until the isolation is lifted."

Agit Ural, spokesperson of the group consisting of members of the Kiel Democratic Kurdish Community Center, which took over the Freedom Vigil in its 615th week, said: "We have been continuing our actions alongside the European Parliament and the European Council for years. European institutions are complicit in the isolation. They think we will forget our leadership. But we will never forget our Leader, because he gave us a new life."