15 February marks the anniversary of the international conspiracy that led to the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan’s abduction to Turkey in 1999. Since then, Öcalan has been held as a political hostage on the prison island of Imrali, most of the time under conditions of total isolation. Kurds and their friends are going into action all around the world to demand the lifting of Abdullah Öcalan's incommunicado detention and the resumption of peace negotiations and conditions for the Kurdish leader in which he can live and work freely in order to contribute to the solution of the Kurdish question.

Kurds and their friends took to the streets in Geneva in protest at the international conspiracy on its 24th year anniversary.

Many activists from Geneva and Lausanne attended the demonstration, which began with a press statement in front of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

 The statement denouncing the international conspiracy was followed by a march to Nations Square where a rally was staged.

Speaking here, Sıtkı Demir from the Democratic Kurdish Council in Switzerland offered their condolences to the relatives of the victims of the February 6 earthquake that claimed tens of thousands of lives in Turkey, North Kurdistan and Syria. Demir remarked that the international conspiracy targeted the Kurdish people in the person of Abdullah Öcalan and saluted the resistance of the Kurdish leader in Imrali Island Prison where he is held under absolute incommunicado detention and denied fundamental rights and freedoms.

Speaking after, Kurdish activist Xoşnav Ata pointed out that the guerrilla forces in Kurdistan have been resisting just like Abdullah Öcalan for the past 24 years. Denouncing the Turkish state’s inhumane attacks against guerrilla areas in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq), Ata saluted the guerrilla forces’ resolute resistance against Turkish attacks with chemical weapons and banned bombs for the last two years.

Xosnav Ata, who lost his nieces Gülperin Ata and Mihriban Ata in the chemical attacks by the Turkish state, has been carrying out a vigil in front of the OPCW for months. Ata calls on the OPCW to step into action and launch an investigation into the chemical attacks of the Turkish state in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq).

"The Turkish state killed my niece with chemicals. Why won't you investigate?" is written on a purple cardboard sign held by Ata. It refers to the guerrilla fighter Binevş Agal (Gülperin Ata), who died at the end of May while resisting the Turkish invasion at Kuro Jahro in the Zap region of southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq). The People's Defense Forces (HPG) had said about the circumstances of the death that the Turkish army had fired chemical warfare agents over several days against guerrilla positions where Binevş Agal was in action. For months, the HPG has been reporting daily documented chemical weapons attacks by the military of the Turkish state.