Shengal Women’s Units (YJŞ) Command issued a written statement and condemned the international conspiracy against Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan enacted on October 9, 1998.

The YJŞ statement says, “Let’s raise the resistance and the struggle in all areas until our Leader is physically free,” and continues:

“On October 9, 1998, colonialist powers forced Leader Apo to leave Syria through ugly methods and Turkey’s threats. International powers enacted an inhumane conspiracy and handed our Leader over to the fascist Turkish state on February 15, 1999. International powers and opponents of Free Thought have attempted to physically destroy Leader Apo many times. As much as the colonialists sought to destroy, the peoples demanding freedom have voided all these ugly and genocidal attempts. Under the lead of Leader Apo, the struggle of the peoples rose again from its own ashes. This struggle, growing every day, turned into the struggle for freedom for all the peoples of the Middle East and became the property of all humanity.

With this conspiracy, nationalist and racist forces wanted to take hostage the rising voices of the peoples in the Middle East thanks to the Leader. But our Leader’s intense efforts in the Imrali Island and our people’s unprecedented resistance has voided this conspiracy. Now, our leader is placed under an isolation never before seen throughout the world, with the goal to prevent the peoples of the Middle East from hearing about the ideas and views of our Leader. This isolation imposed upon our leader clearly shows that the conspiracy of October 9 is still underway.

With the 73rd genocide, thousands of our people have been massacred and Êzidî women have been abducted. In the aftermath of this genocide, with the ideas of our Leader, the YBŞ and YJŞ were formed with the ideas of the Leader and on the basis of self defense on the Êzîdxan lands, saving the sacred lands and pushing ISIS gangs out through an unprecedented resistance. Again with our Leader’s philosophy based on women’s freedom, today hundreds of Êzidî women have taken up arms to protect the Êzidî values and to avenge the 73rd genocide. They are fighting against all colonialists. As voiced in the Leader’s philosophy with all its might, on the basis of ‘Freedom of women is the freedom of society’, they will continue their struggle in all areas. On this basis, we strongly condemn the October 9 conspiracy and the isolation imposed upon our Leader. We state that we will raise our struggle and our resistance until we free our Leader physically against the conspiracy, and we call on all to raise the struggle in all areas.”