Kurdish people have been holding a sit-in every Wednesday since 25 January 2021 in Place des Nations, where the UN Office is located in Geneva, to demand freedom for Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Öcalan.

The action is part of the 'Dem Dema Azadiyê' campaign and every week activists delivered information leaflets about Öcalan's freedom paradigm, the regime of isolation imposed on him in Imrali and why he should be freed.

The action started with a minute’s silence for those who fell as martyrs in the Kurdistan Freedom Struggle in the person of Veysi (Bubo) Taş and Mehmet Akar, who set their bodies on fire to protest isolation.

Geneva Democratic Kurdish Community Center co-chair Erdal Atasoy paid tribute to Taş and Akar in his speech.

Atasoy said: "Today, the UN and the western states, which are the architects of the international conspiracy [that led to the arrest of Öcalan in 1999], are silent against the torture of isolation imposed on our Leader, and the war and crimes against humanity targeting our people. They should know that 2023 will be the year of freedom for the Kurdish people and our Leader. We, the Kurdish people, are conscious of this and once again promise to be loyal to the memory of our martyrs."

After Atasoy, a press statement in French was read by Ramazan Baytar, Foreign Relations Representative of the Swiss Democratic Kurdish Council (CDK-S).