Since 25 June 2012, groups from all over Europe have been taking turns to hold a weekly vigil in front of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) in Strasbourg for an end to the isolation and physical freedom of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan. This week, a group from Antwerp took over the permanent vigil. The activists, Cesur Rekawt, Hamid Seidi, Seid Huseyni and Efşin Hatemi, demand the freedom of Öcalan and a political solution to the Kurdish question. There has been no contact with Abdullah Öcalan and his three fellow prisoners, Hamili Yıldırım, Ömer Hayri Konar and Veysi Aktaş in Imrali Island Prison in the Turkish Sea of Marmara since March 2021.

The campaign "Freedom for Öcalan and a political solution to the Kurdish question" was launched in Strasbourg last week. At the same time, there were declarations of solidarity in over a hundred places worldwide. The campaign demands immediate access for the legal team and family members to PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan, who has been held hostage on the Turkish prison island of Imrali since 1999, and finally his release under conditions that allow him to play a role in finding a political solution to the Kurdish question.

The campaign brings together academics, journalists, NGOs, political parties, parliamentarians, activists, philosophers, Nobel laureates, women's organisations and representatives of indigenous peoples from all continents.