The Co-Presidency of the KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council released a statement on occasion of the birthday of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan who turns 72 today.

The statement by KCK Executive Council Co-Presidency includes the following:

“We wish the Kurdish people and women and all peoples a happy birthday of our Leader Abdullah Öcalan on April 4. We celebrate his birthday and respectfully commemorate mother Üveyş who has blessed humanity with such a child.

The birth of our leader Abdullah Öcalan is the birthday the Kurdish people, the women, and of all oppressed peoples and communities. Such birthdays are celebrated because of their great importance for humanity. Our leader Abdullah Öcalan has become more than an individual. Today, he represents a collective identity that has been accepted by humanity, especially all oppressed peoples, communities, and women. His birth constitutes a very important turning point in human history of freedom and democracy. Our leader Abdullah Öcalan himself has found striking analogies for his historic role by saying that he had presented the essence of humanity’s shared knowledge.

Our leader Abdullah Öcalan has gained the Kurdish people, the peoples of the Middle East, humanity, and all women so much that we find ourselves in debt to him. Only those who lack conscience and the feeling of justice, only tyrants, can deny all that our leader Abdullah Öcalan has won for humanity. Today, it can no longer be denied that his ideas and his achievements for the Kurdish people, the women, and all peoples belong to all of humanity. Therefore, every April 4 needs to be turned into a day of increasing the struggle for his physical freedom. Only by doing so can we live up to this birthday of the Kurdish people, women, and all oppressed communities. And only through such a struggle can we pay our debt to our leader Abdullah Öcalan. He has called on the Kurdish people and women and all peoples to fight for their own freedom. Thus, our leader Abdullah Öcalan has undoubtedly stressed that his physical freedom equals the freedom of the Kurdish people, of the women, and of all the oppressed communities. Our campaign `End isolation, fascism, and occupation – Time to ensure freedom` is therefore also a struggle for the physical freedom of our leader Abdullah Öcalan.

Everywhere needs to be turned into a place of struggle for the physical freedom of our leader Abdullah Öcalan and into a place of celebration of his birthday – especially the village Amara where he was born. We call on everybody to turn the year 2021 into the year of liberating our leader Abdullah Öcalan and Kurdistan and of meeting him on the Newroz square of Amed. We would also like to renew our promise to live up to the significance of the birthday of our leader Abdullah Öcalan."