9 October marks the anniversary of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s forced departure from Syria in 1998. Expelled from Syria, Abdullah Öcalan decided to make his way to Europe rather than to the PKK's strongholds in the Kurdish mountains of Northern Iraq or North-Western Iran. As all European countries refused to grant him leave to enter, the Kurdish leader was finally flown to the Greek Embassy at Nairobi, Kenya via Moscow, Athens and Corfu, in what became increasingly obvious as a deliberate consipracy to maneuvre him into a position where he could be handed over to the Turkish authorities as soon as safeguards of European law were effectively by-passed. On 15 February 1999, the Kurdish leader was arrested in Kenya and handed over to Turkey, where he has since been subjected to unlawful treatment in violation of international law. 9 October thus marks the beginning of what the Kurds call “the international conspiracy”.

Thousands of people from the Euphrates Canton gathered in Kobanê on Monday in protest at the International 9 October Conspiracy. Carrying posters of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan, masses marched from Free Women's Square to Martyr Egid Square.

After a minute of silence in Martyr Egîd Square, Ezab El Ebûd, Co-Chair of the Manbij Canton Executive Council, addressed the crowd and said, “No power can separate us from the ideas of Leader Abdullah Öcalan. The Rojava resistance showed everyone that the international conspiracy has failed. What is required from all of us is to increase the struggle to ensure the physical freedom of Leader Abdullah Öcalan.”

Mihemed Mihemed, one of the leaders of the Syrian Revolutionary Youth Movement, condemned the international conspiracy and said, “They wanted to darken our sun, but they failed. Our will, that is, Leader Abdullah Öcalan, is kept between the four walls of İmralı. However, our sun saved us from the darkness with his resistance and showed us the light.”

Arif Balî, Co-Chair of the Euphrates Canton Ecology Board, emphasised that they live every moment with Leader Abdullah Öcalan and that they struggle on the basis of his ideas and said, “The conspiratorial forces should see that the ideas of our Leader transcend borders. The whole world is recognising this free thought day by day. The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria is a product of this thought.”

The march ended with slogans saluting the resistance of Abdullah Öcalan.