This year’s long march for the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan and a solution to the Kurdish question will take place in September. Numerous Kurdish and internationalist activists from Germany and other European countries will take part in the multi-day demonstration, which will begin on 15 September with a kick-off event in Bielefeld and end on 20 September in Duisburg. The intermediate stops are Hamm, Dortmund and Essen.

“For years, the Kurdish youth movement has been gathering for its traditional event, the Meşa Dirêj [Long March], with a clear demand: A political solution to the Kurdish question can only be achieved if the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan is allowed to meet with his lawyers and family and is released under conditions that allow him to play a role in the search for a just and democratic solution to the Kurdistan question,’ stated the preparatory committee on the background to the event. The committee released a video inviting people to take part in the march.

The plan for the six-day march is as follows:

15 September - Meeting - Herbert Hinnendahl-Strasse 11, 33602 Bielefeld
15 September - Day 1 - Conference on the person and ideology of Abdullah Öcalan
16 September - Day 2 - Bielefeld
17 September - Day 3 - Hamm
18 September - Day 4 - Dortmund
19 September - Day 5 - Essen
20 September - Day 6 - Duisburg.

Anyone interested in taking part in the march can contact the preparation committee at [email protected] or via Instagram (@mesadirej2024) and Telegram (@mesadirej2024).

Abdullah Öcalan, who founded the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in 1978, is considered the most powerful political prisoner of our time. Since he was kidnapped in Kenya more than 25 years ago as part of an international conspiracy involving the USA and Israel, among others, and handed over to Turkey in violation of international law. He has since been held in Imrali Island Prison, sealed off from the outside world. Öcalan, who is now 75-year-old, received his last visit from a lawyer in 2019 and his last family visit was in 2020. In March 2021, a wave of international protests made a telephone conversation between Öcalan and his brother possible, but it was interrupted after a few minutes for unknown reasons.

Since then, there has been no sign of life from Öcalan and his three fellow prisoners Ömer Hayri Konar, Hamili Yıldırım and Veysi Aktaş. Requests for visits from the Istanbul-based Asrın Law Office, which represents the four Imrali prisoners, are rejected by the Turkish judiciary and requests for information remain unanswered. Extended disciplinary sentences are imposed in prison every six months as legal cover. International initiatives to lift the isolation on Imrali are also ignored by Ankara.