Week of action for a political solution to the Kurdish question will take place in North Kurdistan in February. “Let Abdullah Öcalan speak,” demanded DEM MP Sinan Çiftyürek at a press conference in Amed.
Weeks of action for the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan and a political solution to the Kurdish question will take place in North Kurdistan in February. Politicians from the DEM and DBP parties announced at a press conference in Amed that from 1 to 15 February, demonstrations under the slogan “Time for Freedom” will be held in all cities of the Kurdish provinces in Turkey in order to break Öcalan's isolation, said DBP chair Keskin Bayindir.
Isolation as an instrument of social oppression
Öcalan was kidnapped from Kenya and brought to Turkey on 15 February 1999 by an international Secret Service action and has been on the prison island of Imrali for 25 years, where he is held incommunicado.
Bayindir said at the press conference that the Kurdish people see Öcalan as a crucial figure in the fight for equality, justice and freedom and the total isolation he is subjected to is illegal and inhumane. The aim of the week of action is to enforce the rights that all prisoners are entitled to under Turkish law and international standards.
Bayindir said: “The isolation system in Imrali is the center of the policy of extermination against the Kurdish people’s struggle for freedom. Absolute isolation means occupation, depopulation and colonization of the Kurdish region through war policies. In the current phase, it is not limited to the Kurds and Kurdistan, but has developed into an instrument of oppression and domination of the entire society.”
“Öcalan knows the Middle East very well”
DEM MP Sinan Çiftyürek underlined the escalating conflicts in the Middle East and said: “Mr Öcalan has a lot to say, he understands the politics in the Middle East very well. If he could express his ideas and thoughts, he would speak out against war. The state does not want the Kurdish question to be resolved through democratic means. If it wanted to, it would lift Mr Öcalan's isolation. We appeal to the state to abandon this immoral policy. Lift this isolation to solve the Kurdish question and the problems of the peoples of Turkey and the Middle East. Let Abdullah Öcalan speak."
