Organized by the Kurdish umbrella organization KON-MED and the youth movements TCŞ and TEKO-JIN, a demonstration took place in Kassel on Saturday. For the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan, hundreds of people marched through the city with banners, music and slogans on an eight-kilometer route.

The demonstration started with a minute of silence for the martyrs of the liberation struggle at Wilhelmshöhe station. Speeches drew attention to the total isolation of Abdullah Öcalan, the hunger strike in Turkish prisons, the tense situation in Shengal, the collaboration of South Kurdistan’s ruling party KDP with the Turkish state, the attacks on Rojava and the resistance of the guerrillas in Heftanin.

The activists carried banners reading "Bimre Îxanet" (Down with betrayal), "Heftanin will be the grave of fascism", "End isolation - Freedom for Öcalan" and "Bijî Berxwedana Zindana" (Long live prison resistance).

During the demonstration, people in solidarity in the surrounding area unfurled a banner with the inscription "Open Borders Now" to protest against the EU's closure policy and to draw attention to the dramatic situation of refugees at the EU's external borders.

The demonstration ended with a final rally at Königsplatz.