Shengal Constituent Assembly issued a written statement on the 18th anniversary of the February 15 international conspiracy against Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan.

Below is the full text of the Shengal Constituent Assembly statement:

"Kurdish people have put up a unique resistance for their freedom and rights for years. The international hegemonic powers tried to destroy this resistance through the conspiracy they carried out against Leader Apo [referring to Öcalan in Kurdish] on February 15, 1999. The conspirators thought that Leader Apo's ideas and philosophy would be destroyed with his capture. However, they did not see that the philosophy of Leader Apo is in the hearts of millions of people. Hundreds of heroes set their body on fire as they stood against the conspiracy. This heroic resistance is a testament to the power and value of Leader Apo's philosophy for the people.

With his resistance and stance on İmralı, Leader Apo foiled the plans of the international conspirators. Öcalan may be one single person but his democratic nation paradigm encompasses all peoples, faiths, cultures and the history of humanity. The revolution in Rojava, where people live in stability and equality, is the best example of this. Therefore, we say that Leader Apo is a leader of humanity and represents the values of humanity.

It was the fighters of Leader Apo that saved Êzidî people from a genocide when the forces and parties that saw themselves as the owners of Shengal abandoned civilians and left them to be massacred on August 3, 2014. Even though he is imprisoned, Leader Apo has always been with the Êzidî people. During some meetings held with him, Leader Apo drew attention to the defense of Shengal numerous times and called for the defense of Êzidxan. However, certain powers disallowed and prevented this thought. Today, Shengal has attained its will and takes its decisions on itself. Leader Apo enabled the people of Shengal to take their own decisions. Shengal will get organized around the ideas of Leader Apo. But for the ideas and philosophy of Leader Apo, it would be impossible to speak of the existence of Êzidis.

For this reason, it is Êzidî people that should defend and act for the Leader. We call upon Êzidî people all around the world to defend and support Leader Apo relentlessly because the autonomy and freedom of Shengal will be possible through the freedom of Leader Apo. We therefore say that the freedom of Leader Apo is the freedom of Êzidxan. Every Êzidî should stand up for Leader Öcalan."