Members of Freedom for Öcalan Initiative and representatives of Kurdish institutions in Europe will go on a five-day hunger strike to demand freedom for Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan.

The hunger strike will begin outside the European Council at 11:00 on September 28 and last till October 2. The activists who will join the hunger strike have issued a statement titled 'Call to Humanity' announcing the purpose of the action.

Pointing out that the war in Turkey and the Middle East is taking place between those siding with democracy and peace and those siding with dictatorship and war, the statement said: “To put it more clearly, a big war is going on between those who turn the Middle East into a hell and those who try to make it a liveable territory with freedoms. This war has also formed two block nations and a democracy front”.

'LEADER ÖCALAN WHO STRUGGLES FOR PEACEC MUST BE FREE'

Stressing that the Kurds stand at the front of democracy and freedom and against war, dictatorship, all theocratic and repressive regimes and mentalities, the statement said: “We know it very well that Leader Öcalan has been making great efforts since 1990’s in order to make peace with the Turkish state and pursue his struggle on the basis of democratic politics. We believe Leader Abdullah Öcalan who has been kept in a one-person cell on Imrali Island for 17 years now, must be freed at this stage. We believe Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s freedom is the guarantee of peace, resolution and together-living of Turkey's peoples and the Kurds, and even for the co-existence of Arab, Persians and the Kurds in peace in the Middle East. The Kurdish people believe struggle for the freedom of their Leader because they trust this will also enable the peoples in the region to live together.”

The statement stressed that the organizers of the action support the dignified struggle of the Kurdish people and see their fight as a struggle of their own, adding; “Through the democratic actions we held in the previous years, we conveyed our demand for the freedom of Abdulah Öcalan to institutions including the European Council, European Parliament and the CPT. The demand highlighted by activists of the Geneva-Strasbourg long march and 52-day hunger strike was also found meaningful and reasonable by these institutions, because of which we suspended our actions for some time. However, now that the concerned European institutions have not taken any action or fulfilled their responsibilities and duties in this regard, we we start a 5-day hunger strike between September 28 and October 2 with an aim to bring our same demand to the agenda once again and to remind them of the promises they had made.”

'STAND BY US IN OUR ACTION'

Touching upon the isolation imposed by the AKP on the Kurdish people in the person of Öcalan, the statement went on saying that: “Upon the order of Turkish state's representative Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the talks for negotiations were halted and then visits to Öcalan were prohibited as of April 5, 2015. Blackmail against Öcalan has always been the first target for the Turkish state whenever it faced some difficulties. Following the political victory achieved by the democracy and freedom bloc that united under the umbrella of the HDP in 7 June elections, the first thing done by the Turkish state happened to impose isolation on Öcalan and then to suspend the negotiations process and declare a war against the Kurdish people. Apart from the war recently started, the isolation policy imposed on Leader Abdullah Öcalan does alone correspond to a new war concept initiated against the Kurdish people”.

The statement stressed that the Kurdish people will keep not remaining silent on this dirty war of isolation and blackmailing that is being imposed in the person of Leader Abdullah Öcalan, and will struggle in order that the isolation in İmralı be ended, Öcalan be allowed visits by his lawyers and delegation for negotiations, and the Kurdish leader be provided with an entire freedom.

Organizers of the action said that the hunger strike will be held as a warning action as part of the “Freedom for Öcalan” campaign, and called on the Kurdish people living in Europe, their political friends, allies from Turkey and all those waging a joint struggle against fascism under democracy and freedom bloc to stand by the participants of the action for Öcalan's freedom.

The statement also stressed that the peoples of Turkey, Kurdistan and the Middle East will not be free unless Öcalan is freed, nor will women, youths, faith groups and peoples attain an environment of co-existence as the struggle for democracy and humanity will not sufficiently reach its targets.

'ÖCALAN'S PHILOSOPHY LEADS THE STRUGGLE'

The statement said the fight against ISIS gangs that continue to commit crimes against humanity is being led by the YPG/YPJ army who base on the philosophy and ideology created by Abdullah Öcalan. “It is inarguably the Kurdish Freedom Movement and its leader Abdullah Öcalan that defend radical democracy against the savage gangs and the international powers and local groups backing them.”

CALL TO INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

The activists underlined that freedom of Leader Abdullah Öcalan would therefore mean an attainment of a major position in the fight against fascism, ISIS, dictatorship and imperialism, and building of a new life for the Kurdish people.

Describing the freedom of Leader Öcalan as a sine qua non for the Kurdish people, the activists said their demand was not just a removal of the isolation imposed on him, but also provision of him with an entire freedom and a free environment to do politics.

At the end of the statement, the activists urged primarily the French government and all the European countries, the international institutions such as European Council, European Parliament and CPT to take action for this legitimate and vital demand of the Kurdish people.