Activists in front of the UN headquarters in Geneva called for a political solution to the Kurdish question and freedom for Abdullah Öcalan: “We are 50 million Kurds; our demands cannot simply be ignored.”
Every Wednesday for the past three years, the Democratic Kurdish Community in Switzerland (CDK-S) has been holding a sit-in in front of the UN building calling for the release of Abdullah Öcalan and a political solution to the Kurdish question.
On Wednesday, the activists paid tribute to Kurdish women Sakine Cansız (Sara), Fidan Doğan (Rojbîn), Leyla Şaylemez (Ronahî), Emine Kara (Evîn Goyî) as well as musician Mîr Perwer and activist Abdurrahman Kızıl who were murdered in attacks in Paris in 2013 and 2022.
Kasim Erik said in a speech that the sit-in began in January 2021 in support of the hunger strike of political prisoners in Turkey against the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan and would continue until his release.
Ibrahim Yüksel from the CDK-Geneva added that a hunger strike is also taking place today in Turkish prisons demanding a solution to the Kurdish question.
Öcalan has been in solitary confinement for almost 25 years, his isolation is illegal and torture and blocks any political solution, said Yüksel, who also criticized the UN and other international institutions for ignoring serious human rights violations. “When it comes to the Kurdish people and Kurdistan, these are institutions mute, deaf and blind. We are 50 million Kurds. Our demands cannot simply be ignored,” he said.
