Led by the European Kurdish Women’s Movement (TJK-E) and Amara Kurdish Women’s Council, Kurds and their political supporters came together in front of the parliament building in Stockholm, Sweden, to condemn the intensified isolation of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan and to demand his freedom. Protestors carried posters of Abdullah Öcalan and signs that read “Freedom for Öcalan, Peace in Kurdistan.”

A committee representing the Democratic Kurdish Society Center in Sweden and Amara Kurdish Women’s Council met with the Left Party Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Hans Linde at the Swedish Parliament during the protest. In this meeting, the committee emphasized the importance of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan for the resolution of the Kurdish issue, expressed Kurdish people’s concern over the health of Öcalan, and emphasized that the intensified isolation of the Kurdish leader – who represents the political will of millions of Kurds – cannot be acceptable.

In response, Left Party Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Hans Linde expressed concern over the operations and arrests in Turkey and Kurdistan, and affirmed that the issue would be discussed with the Left Party President Jonas Sjöstedt. Linde also stated that the issues that were raised during the meeting would be discussed in the parliament and the Left Party would discuss the ways in which the public could be mobilized for this issue.

At the end of the meeting, the committee presented Linde with three of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s books that have been translated into Swedish.