Following the rumors about the death of Abdullah Öcalan, residents of the Maxmur refugee camp demanded that lawyers and family members to be granted a visit to Öcalan and warned the Turkish government not to test the Kurdish people.
Following the rumors spread on social media about the death of Abdullah Öcalan on the Turkish prison island of Imrali, the people in the Martyr Rûstem Cudi Maxmur Refugee Camp in southern Kurdistan, northern Iraq, also took to the streets today.
Masses gathered in front of the Maxmur People's Municipality and marched to the UN headquarters inside the camp with pictures of Öcalan and flags of the PKK and the female guerrilla troop YJA-Star, chanting the slogans "No life without Ocalan", "Bijî Serok Apo" and "Long live the resistance on Imrali".
After a minute of silence in commemoration of the martyrs of the Kurdistan Freedom Movement, teacher Hüseyin Kara read out a statement.
The statement called attention to the rumours about Öcalan on social media and continued: The forces of conspiracy and occupation have never given up their policy of annihilation and denial. As Kurds and as the people of Kurdistan, we are indebted to Abdullah Öcalan because he taught us how to fight for freedom in an organized way. We owe our existence to his ideas and philosophy. Therefore, for us, life without him is unthinkable."
The ruling AKP-MHP bloc should not test the Kurdish people with such approaches. Leader Öcalan has thousands of dedicated followers because he is not only the Leader of the Kurdish people, but the Leader of all the oppressed and humanity. Therefore, the conspiratorial forces should be careful about the moves they are making."
