The Freedom for Öcalan Vigil in Strasbourg, has entered its 485th week in Strasbourg. Activists have been demanding freedom for the Kurdish people’s leader since 2012.

The European Parliament Kurdish Friendship Group visited the vigil, this week carried out by a group of Kurdish patriots from Darmstadt.

The MEPs delegation called for the immediate release of all political prisoners, especially Öcalan, in order to ensure a democratic and peaceful solution to the Kurdish problem.

The parliamentarians emphasized that the just struggle of the Kurdish people and their demands for a solution should be supported in all areas.

Speaking on behalf of the vigil, Zülfü Bingöl said that the visit of the Kurdish friendship group was important and thanked them for their support.

Underlining that the Turkish state has attacked the honour of the Kurdish people in the person of Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Öcalan, with the action that the Kurdish people have been carrying out next to the European institutions for 9 years, Bingöl said that the approach of the European institutions to Turkey is to ignore its crimes.

Bingöl added that the Council of Europe and the CPT did not fulfil their duties to ensure the end of the isolation, and demanded that the parliamentarians put pressure on the relevant institutions.

The MEPs delegation consisted of Austrian deputy Andreas Schieder from the European Parliament's Progressive Socialists and Democrats Group, Basque Pernando Barrena Arza from the European Parliament's Left Group, Miguel Urbân Crespo from the European Parliament's Left Group and the Spanish Anti-Capitalist Movement, and the European Parliament's Greens Group / Europe Françoise Alfonsi, the Free Alliance Parliamentarian, French deputy, and the head of the Kurdish Friendship Group.