In preparation for the 21st anniversary of the international conspiracy on February 15th, which led to the arrest of Abdullah Öcalan in 1999, and for the traditional long marches to Strasbourg demanding freedom for the Kurdish leader, two-day demonstrations have been taking place since Friday in Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, Vienna and Paris.

Germany

In Stuttgart, the participants in the march met yesterday at Esslingen train station and marched as far as Bad Cannstatt. Today the demonstration continued from there to the main station of the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg. Under a colourful sea of flags, the crowd moved towards the city centre chanting loud slogans. Arriving there, the event organized by the Federation of Kurdistan Communities (FCK) ended with applause and the slogan "Freedom for Öcalan - Status for Kurdistan".

Austria

The demonstration in Austria began on Friday in St. Pölen and ended today with a rally after a march from Vienna’s Westbahnhof starting at Heldenplatz.

France

In Paris, the march started from the municipality of Ivry-sur-Seine, some seven kilometers southeast of the center of the French capital. Necmettin Demiralp, co-chair of the Kurdish Society Centre in Paris, declared in an address that the struggle for the liberation of Abdullah Öcalan will continue on all levels.

Long March of Youth

Meanwhile in Hesse the traditional long march of the Kurdish youth movement to Strasbourg has begun. The young activists started the demonstration on Saturday in the metropolis of Frankfurt. The other stops are Neu Isenburg, Bensheim, Mannheim, Homburg and Saarbrucken.

In addition to the action of the young people, there are two further routes to Strasbourg: The internationalist march will begin on 10 February with a press conference in Luxembourg. On the same day, a demonstration march will start in Geneva, in which representatives of Kurdish institutions and leftist organizations from Turkey will participate.