After reaching Strasbourg, the Long March activists held a rally. Speaking here, MEP Emmanuel Fernandes called for participation in the historic march and rally on Saturday.
26 people launched a 26-day “Long March” in France on 21 January as part of the international campaign launched in October 2023, demanding “Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan and a political solution to the Kurdish question”. The march draws public attention to Öcalan’s 26 years of captivity in the İmralı Island Prison in Turkey.
The activists will conclude the action with a rally in Strasbourg on February 15, the anniversary of the international conspiracy that resulted in the capture of the Kurdish leader in Kenya and his handover to Turkey in 1999.
The activists reached Strasbourg during the day and met with the Kurdish residents before staging a march from Kleber Square to the Democratic Kurdish Community Center.
Before the start of the march, demonstrators observed a minute of silence for the martyrs of the Kurdistan revolution and protested the Turkish state’s increasingly ongoing attacks against Rojava.
The march was followed by a rally in front of the Democratic Kurdish Community Center. Addressing the crowd here, Emmanuel Fernandes, a member of the European Parliament and the ‘France Unbowed’ Movement, stated that Abdullah Öcalan is the interlocutor of the Kurdish question and that his physical freedom must be ensured as soon as possible.
Emmanuel Fernandes denounced the Turkish state's ongoing attacks on Rojava and stated that Rojava's egalitarian, women-priority and ecological paradigm is the solution for Syria and must be preserved.
“We will increase our solidarity with the Kurdish people,” said Emmanuel Fernandes, and called for participation in the historic march and rally to be held in Strasbourg on 15 February 15.
