A vigil by the Democratic Kurdish Community in Switzerland has been taking place in front of the UN headquarters in Geneva since 25 January 2021. Every Wednesday, activists stage a protest in front of the United Nations building to demand the release of Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan. The action is carried out as part of the 'Dem dema azadiye' [Time for Freedom] campaign and directed against the isolation of the Kurdish leader on the Turkish prison island of Imrali, the Turkish occupation attacks on Kurdistan, the massacres committed in Kurdish territories and the silence of the UN.

Today’s vigil began with a minute of silence in memory of the Martyrs of May. Speaking in the name of the Democratic Kurdish Community Center in Geneva, Mustafa Altunbaş, highlighted the importance of the martyrs of May for the Kurdish freedom struggle and Turkey’s revolutionary struggle.

Altunbaş stated that they would enhance the struggle based on the freedom paradigm.

Speaking about the May 14 presidential election in Turkey and North Kurdistan which will go to a runoff on May 28, Mehmet Sütçü, in the name of the Green Left Party Election Coordination in Switzerland, called on voters to go to the polls.

The vigil concluded with a sit-in action, with the activists turning their backs on the UN headquarters in protest at its silence on Öcalan’s isolation and massacres in Kurdistan.