The Executive Committee of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has issued a statement on the abduction of Abdullah Öcalan from Kenya to Turkey on 15 February 1999. The PKK pointed out that 23 years have passed since Öcalan was taken to Turkey. Within this period, the aim of the international conspiracy - the annihilation of Öcalan and the crushing of the Kurdish liberation movement - has not been achieved, said the PKK which also commemorated those who died in the protests after Öcalan's capture.

The PKK statement published on Sunday said,

"The international conspiracy against Leader Abdullah Öcalan began on 9 October 1998 [with his forced departure from Syria]. The aim was his annihilation. After various methods of elimination were unsuccessful, he was kidnapped in Kenya on 15 February 1999 and extradited to the Republic of Turkey to be executed. Since the death penalty was not carried out, he was to be worn down within the system of torture and isolation established on Imrali in order to enforce his ideological-political defeat. This procedure also did not produce the desired result. An attempt was then made to split the PKK from within with a provocatively destructive line so that Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] would no longer have an organisation. In the further course, various intrigues and machinations such as the 'Imrali talks' [in the supposed negotiations for a solution of the Kurdish question] were tried to bring the plot to a successful conclusion. Since all these attacks failed, the attempt is now being made to take revenge with total isolation. The international conspiracy continues today with the isolation torture on Imrali, the classification of the PKK as a terrorist organisation and methods such as repression, suppression, massacres and genocide against the Kurdish people.

The plot against Rêber Apo was decided, planned and carried out by the US government as an extermination strike against Kurdish existence and freedom. In the past 24 years, the various governments of the US have sought support from Israel and Britain in particular, as well as from Egypt, France, Germany, Russia, Greece, Kenya and other states as needed. It is obvious that the plot aims at genocide of the Kurdish people and is a joint attack of the global power system of states. The Republic of Turkey is used as a guardian, but the Imrali system is maintained by the global attack partnership.

We as a movement and a people must never forget these facts, even the friends of the Kurdish people must be aware of them. With this awareness, we must fight against the international conspiracy and hold the powers involved accountable.”

Öcalan himself has set out the theory, the ideology, the programme, the strategy and the way in which the conspiracy must be fought, the PKK further said and continued: "Instead of looking for a solution within the system, which would have meant surrendering to the conspiracy's mentality and politics, he has planned to fight the system from within and thus overcome it by creating a new system of free and democratic life. In short, he first defeated the conspiracy in his mind and heart and then devoted himself to ideological and practical struggle on this basis. We rely on the same method in our struggle against the conspiracy and let it fail first in our minds and hearts in order to devote ourselves to our political practice on this basis."

In its statement, the PKK stressed that the plot is a global attack that affects the peoples of Turkey and the Middle East beyond the Kurdish people, adding, “Similarly, the resistance against it must take place on a global level, which is also being done internationally with the campaign "Dem Dema Azadiyê" (Time for Freedom).”

The PKK Executive Committee called for this struggle to be intensified in order to smash the fascism of the AKP/MHP regime and to achieve the release of Öcalan.