Eight years of vigil for Abdullah Öcalan in Strasbourg

For exactly eight years a permanent vigil for the freedom of Abdullah Ocalan has been taking place in Strasbourg. A rally has been held to mark the anniversary today.

Since 25 June 2012, a permanent vigil for the freedom of the Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Ocalan has been held in front of the Council of Europe building in Strasbourg, France. To mark the eight anniversary, a rally was held today in which representatives of the member organisations of the European umbrella organisation KCDK-E took part.

Fatoş Göksungur co-chair of KCDK-E, gave a speech in which she drew attention to the isolation torture that Abdullah Öcalan has been subjected to for over 21 years on the prison island of Imrali. Göksungur explained that the aim of the deportation of Öcalan to Turkey in 1999, in which several foreign secret services were involved, was to destroy the will of free Kurds. Today, she said, the Turkish state is trying to consolidate its occupation in all parts of Kurdistan under the eyes of the world public. The world powers are partly to blame for this, she said.

In the name of the "Kurdish Women's Movement in Europe" (TJK-E), Nezahat Ergüneş said that Abdullah Ocalan has contributed significantly to the development of the women's liberation struggle: "He has made free women out of women enslaved in feudalism and patriarchal society," said Ergüneş. In her speech, she condemned the deadly armed drone attack on three activists of the women's movement in Kobanê two days ago and drew a parallel to the assassination attack of the Turkish secret service in Paris in 2013 and the targeted killing of three activists in Northern Kurdistan in 2016.

“The Turkish state is currently exploring the possibility of occupying Kobanê after Afrin, Serêkaniyê and Girê Spî. The women in Kobanê - the city in which the ISIS suffered its first defeat - were very consciously chosen as targets, said Nezahat Ergüneş and continued: "Since Kobanê symbolizes the women's revolution and is a source of hope for people all over the world as a city of resistance. The resistance was led by women. The women's movement will continue its struggle until Ocalan and Kurdistan are liberated.”

Further speeches were made by the Kurdish politician in exile Demir Çelik from the KCDK-E board, Mele Muhyiddin from the Islamic Community Kurdistan (Ciwaka Islama Kurdistan), Fikret İgrek from the Shengal Diaspora Assembly, Hozan Şemdin from the art and culture movement TEV- ÇAND and Kemal Samer from the Alevi association FEDA.