The Democratic Society Movement (TEV-DEM) celebrated Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Öcalan's birthday on 4 April with a written statement.

The statement pointed out the following: “On the occasion of Leader Abdullah Öcalan's birthday, 4 April, we dedicate this day to humanity, the people of Kurdistan. Today, we celebrate Öcalan’s 72nd birthday. Öcalan serves the society and humanity in decisive matters and lives a life marked by revolutionary principles and responsibility. Leader Öcalan has been held in Imralı for 22 years, prisoner of the fascist Turkish state which is imposing a severe isolation and unlawful policy on him. The Turkish is preventing Öcalan’s lawyers and family from meeting with him.

Leader Abdullah Öcalan proved that he is the key to the solution of all the crises in the region by making Imralı the source of resistance and struggle.

Leader Öcalan's birthday is the turning point of the people of the Middle East in the new century. It is also the birthday of the philosophy of free people to establish a society that is democratic, political, moral and gender liberated, based on the principles of equality, social justice, liberation from the remnants of the masculine mentality which has dominating for thousands of years. The North and East Syrian revolution represents these ideas in practice.

Let's make this year the year of our Leader’s freedom. Let’s widen our struggle because the freedom of the Leader is also our freedom.

As Democratic Society Movement (TEV-DEM), we call on political and social movements, human rights organizations, civil society and political organizations to act immediately and work for the freedom of all political prisoners, especially Leader Abdullah Öcalan. This is a sensitive period and the fascist government is running its intelligence networks with terrorist mercenaries to serve its interests.”