Great interest in the concert dedicated to Abdullah Öcalan in Bologna

The 'Tempo di Speranza' (Time for Hope) concert series, which was initiated in Italy last year, continued in Bologna on Tuesday.

A concert was organised in Bologna as a continuation of the series of concerts dedicated to Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan in Brescia, Milan, Alessandria and Rome.

The area of the concert, organised by RETE Kurdistan, Italian Kurdistan Information Office and Italian artists, was decorated with PKK, YPJ, YPG flags and posters of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan.

The concert saw the participation of well-known artists from Italy, and was well attended. Passages from Abdullah Öcalan's defence writings were also read during the concert.

Artists and singers (Alessandro Bergonzoni, Pierpaolo Capovilla, Fiorenza Menni, Lo Stato Sociale) and subsequently, musical performances by Suz and DJ Gruff.


Domenico Mucignat, one of the organisers of the concert, said that he first became acquainted with Abdullah Öcalan's ideas when he came to Italy in 1998. "Since then, I have been doing my best to ensure Abdullah Öcalan's immediate physical freedom and to spread his ideas around the world. Abdullah Öcalan is a philosophical and political leader for all of us," he said.

Describing the paradigm of democratic confederalism presented by Abdullah Öcalan as marvellous, Mucignat said, "Democratic confederalism is the way for societies to live in peace. We will continue to fight for Öcalan's freedom.”

Artist and writer Pierpaolo Copvilla stated: "Öcalan is an instructor. Öcalan is not only a politician, but also a great thinker like Antonio Gramsci. The ideas Öcalan presents are marvellous. Democratic confederalism is the new form of socialism, the socialism of our time is democratic confederalism."

Copvilla said that Abdullah Öcalan's ideas are very advanced and added: "I hope that Öcalan will be released immediately. We want Abdullah Öcalan with us because he is an honest person."

During the concert, young women activists from Làbas and TPO social centers took the floor to express solidarity with Maysoon Majidi and Marjan Jamali, currently incarcerated in Italy, and to express support for the Kurdish population and the campaign for the liberation of Öcalan.

The activists said: "We are here to express solidarity with Maysoon Majidi and Marjan Jamali, two Iranian women fleeing their country who arrived in Calabria at the end of 2023. During their journey to Europe, they distributed food and water to their traveling companions and once they disembarked, they were arrested on charges of being smugglers and of aiding illegal immigration. 

Maysoon is an Iranian Kurdish activist who fought the regime so much that she had to take refuge in Iraq and then continued her journey to Europe after the worsening of security conditions due to Iran's bombing of Iraqi Kurdistan."

The activists continued: "She wanted to escape from a misogynistic and liberticidal regime in which she experienced double oppression: being Kurdish and being a woman. Now she faces 5 years in prison. 

Marjan suffered the same fate. She was considered guilty of wanting to be free, free from a destiny of violence perpetrated within the walls of her home in Iran. 

These two women arrived in Italy. Except that, instead of being able to receive protection, after having managed to escape the regime of the Ayatollahs, they were imprisoned in our country. "

The activists added: "We want Marjan and Maysoon to be freed immediately, in the spirit of Jin Jiyan Azadi, women who defend life and seek freedom. Just as we want Ocalan to be freed, having been imprisoned for over 25 years in inhumane conditions in a maximum security prison and without being able to have any information about him. 

We will always be at the side of the Kurdish people, because the struggle of this people is also our struggle: it is the fight against state borders, against nationalism, against religious fundamentalism, the fight against centralized and colonial power, against corruption, oppression and discrimination. It is the fight for a transfeminist, multi-ethnic, ecological and democratic society, which looks to global freedom against any imperialist war. In essence, it is a fight capable of facing the contradictions and challenges of our time."