August 15, 1984 signals the beginning of the Kurdish freedom movement led by Abdullah Öcalan.

The revolution in Rojava would not have been possible without decades of resistance and the ideological works of Öcalan and the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), which had special emphasis on the principles of participatory democracy, confederal solidarity, anti-capitalism, dual power, and feminism (expressed in Jineology).

The panel brings together world-renowned leaders and experts on Kurdish history, politics, journalism, and activism. The discussion will offer crucial insight into the dramatic history, reality, and prospects of the Kurdish Question.

When you purchase a ticket for this event, you will be sent an eBook version of Your Freedom and Mine: Abdullah Öcalan and the Kurdish Question in Erdoğan's Turkey (Black Rose Books, 2018).

The speakers will be: 

Thomas Jeffrey Miley is a Lecturer of Political Sociology at the University of Cambridge, and a member of the Board of the EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC) and a Patron of Peace in Kurdistan. He is Co-Editor, with Federico Venturini, of Your Freedom and Mine: Abdullah Ocalan and the Kurdish Question in Erdogan's Turkey (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 2018).

Meral Çiçek was born in a Kurdish guest-worker family in Germany. She became engaged in politics and women's activism at the age of 16 with the Kurdish Women’s Peace Office in Dusseldorf. While studying Political Science, Sociology and History at the Goethe-University in Frankfurt she began work as a reporter and editor for the only daily Kurdish newspaper in Europe, Yeni Ozgur Politika, for which she still writes a weekly column. In 2014 she co-founded the Kurdish Women’s Relations Office (REPAK) in Southern Kurdistan (Northern Iraq). She is also an editorial board member of the Jineoloji journal. 

Born in Kobani, Syria, Saleh Moslem became involved in the Kurdish freedom movement while studying chemical engineering at Istanbul Technical University. He was a founding member of the Democratic Union Party (PYD). In 2003 he became a member of the PYD executive council and was elected as Co-Chairman of the party in 2010 and held the position until 2017. He is now a member of the Co-Presidency Council of the party and lives in Qamishli, Syria.

Reimar Heider is a physician by training and a human rights activist. He is one of the spokespersons of the International Initiative “Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan — Peace in Kurdistan” and has translated several books by Öcalan into German.