The Co-Presidency Council of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) released a statement on the occasion of the birthday of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan on April 4.

The statement released on Wednesday includes the following:
“On the occasion of Rêber Apo's [Abdullah Öcalan's] birthday on April 4, we congratulate in particular the Kurdish people, all Kurdish women and the international friends of the Kurds, in addition to all peoples and the democratic world public. On this occasion, we commemorate with
respect and gratitude Mahsum Karaoğlan and Mustafa Dağ, who have become symbols of patriotic attachment with Rêber Apo as Şehits [martyrs] of April 4.

Rêber Apo's birthday on April 4 has a very profound meaning for the Kurdish people and Kurdish women. This day represents the good news of the new birth of the Kurdish people. It announces the good news that the Kurdish people, who were on the verge of being annihilated, have once
again found their existence. The 4th of April announces the good news of a free life. For this reason, every year, the Kurdish people and their international friends celebrate Rêber Apo's birthday with huge motivation and excitement. They understand this day almost as their own new birth. They understand and celebrate April 4 as their own birthday, as the day of their own existence.

The organized and comprehensive celebrations of Rêber Apo's birthday developed after the International Conspiracy [in 1999]. Due to the willpower of Kurdish women, April 4 was celebrated as an ecological and democratic celebration for the first time. Later, under the leadership of women, our entire nation began to celebrate Rêber Apo's birthday comprehensively every year, which later developed into a new tradition. Therefore, the celebrations of Rêber Apo's birthday are also a women's action. They represent the coming together of women with Rêber Apo. And they are the expression of the love, longing and attachment that Kurdish women feel for Rêber Apo. For this reason, every 4th of April represents a day of uniting with Rêber Apo under the leadership of Kurdish women.

Until the appearance of Rêber Apo, the enemies of the Kurdish people had declared the genocide of the Kurds as their destiny. The Kurdish people faced a physical and cultural genocide. This policy of denial and annihilation granted them only biological survival. And even this purely biologically limited right to life was granted only on condition that the Kurds deny their cultural identity. Thus, the land, the culture and even the name of the Kurds were erased from the history of humankind. Therefore, the birthday of Rêber Apo represents the beginning of the rebirth of the Kurds. This means for the Kurds a renewed chance to become one with the Newroz culture. It is the opportunity of a people to regain their lost Newroz. It is the opportunity of a people to regain its
lost sun. For this reason, April 4 marks the end of the genocidal fate of the Kurds that has lasted for a century.

With the birth of Rêber Apo, a new era has begun for the Kurds. This made it possible for the Kurdish people to become one again with their historical roots and their lost identity. Through their true identity, the Kurdish people have turned their eyes back to a free life. As a dignified people, they have once again found a place among the peoples of this earth. Despite the brutal genocide and the incomparable pain they have suffered, our people have been intensifying their struggle
every since at the cost of great sacrifices. Because it is firmly convinced that the way shown by Rêber Apo is the only way of salvation. Therefore, our people does not allow itself to be distracted by its pain and continues to work resolutely to make this very pain the source of beauty and new revolutionary achievements.

This Kurdish rebirth, which began with the birth of Rêber Apo, is at the same time the rebirth of the cultures, beliefs and identities of the other peoples of the Middle East. The present reality of the Kurds stands in harmony with the historical and social truth of our people. Rêber Apo has brought back this spirit and culture of common and closely interwoven coexistence, which is a part of the historical-social reality of our people. This spirit of friendship among peoples, which the peoples have lived together for thousands of years, is flourishing once again in the Middle East today because of Rêber Apo's efforts. Today, under the leadership of the Kurdish people, this historically
far-reaching social-cultural spirit is beginning to build itself in the form of the Democratic Nation. This will put an end to the dark winter to which the peoples, cultures and faith communities have been subjected by the nation-states. Thus, the way will be paved for a real spring and Newroz of the peoples of the Middle East.

Our people have succeeded in making the Newroz of 2022 a Newroz for Rêber Apo. With its resolute stance, which it has clearly demonstrated in the colorful Newroz squares, it has loudly and clearly demanded the freedom of Rêber Apo. The Kurdish people have clearly expressed that their greatest goal is the freedom of Rêber Apo and that the implementation of this demand cannot be postponed any further. Even the intervention of the fascist regime's police in the sound systems at the Newroz celebrations could not hide the fact that millions of people shouted together the slogans "Bijî Serok Apo" ["Long live Abdullah Öcalan"] and "Bê Serok jiyan nabe" ["No life without Abdullah Öcalan"].

On this year's Newroz, the Kurdish people, together with their international friends, addressed the world with numerous messages. But the most important of these messages is the united demand for the immediate end of Rêber Apo's isolation and for his immediate physical freedom. Our people would like to be able to welcome Rêber Apo among themselves at last. They want to see Rêber Apo in the places of Newroz celebrations and to celebrate Newroz together with him. It has clearly shown its determination to fight for the practical implementation of these demands. This wish and this demand of our people are today also legally realistic. Both the Turkish state and its fascist AKP-MHP government, as well as the official opposition of Turkey, must well recognize and correctly understand these demands. Neither the colonialist Turkish state, nor the fascist government, nor the official opposition can continue to ignore this reality today or continue to flee from it. Because as long as the doors of Imrali are not opened, the isolation is not ended and Rêber Apo's physical freedom is not achieved, none of the enormous historical and current problems of Turkey will be solved.

We congratulate our people and their international friends for their determined and resistant attitude, which they have shown in the squares of Newroz celebrations despite all obstacles. And from the bottom of our hearts, we congratulate our people in all four parts of Kurdistan - especially our people living under the oppression and tyranny of AKP-MHP fascism in North Kurdistan - and all over the world for their impressive, strong-willed stance, for their breath-taking attitude on this year's Newroz. Together with its international friends, our people have dealt a historic blow to the fascist AKP-MHP regime and its genocidal policies on Newroz 2022. As a result, this genocidal, fascist regime has been virtually put into a state of shock.

The Kurdish people will transform their euphoric and determined attitude, which they have shown in the squares of the Newroz celebrations, into an even stronger and organized force and a high level of action on April 4 and afterwards throughout this "50th Year of Our Leadership". Also, as a movement, we will put the crushing of Rêber Apo's total isolation and the enforcement of his physical freedom at the center of all our activities. Thus, we will implement all our works based on the Newroz perspective in this "50th Year of Our Leadership".

On this basis, we call upon all our patriotic people and all our honorable international friends, all women and youth of Kurdistan to increase their struggle for the crushing of the total isolation of Rêber Apo and the enforcement of his physical freedom, to increase their organization and to make their actions even more effective. In addition, we invite all people to plant trees in their neighborhoods to mark this occasion.”