A group of Iraqi intellectuals, journalists, writers, artists and politicians formed the ‘Freedom for Öcalan Initiative’ to carry out cultural and intellectual work to promote and spread his ideas and ensure his physical freedom.
A group of Iraqi intellectuals, journalists, writers, artists and politicians announced the establishment of the 'Freedom for Öcalan Initiative' to demand freedom for the Kurdish leader who has been held in İmralı Island Prison in Turkey since 15 February 1999.
“We will work for the recognition and dissemination of his ideas,” said the statement released by the initiative, which reads as follows:
“Abdullah Öcalan has fought for the freedom and brotherhood of not only the Kurdish people but also the peoples of the Middle East. At the same time, he put women's rights and freedom at the center of his struggle. We are launching an initiative for the freedom of Leader Öcalan. We will carry out cultural and intellectual work to promote and spread his ideas and ensure his physical freedom. Öcalan made great sacrifices for the legitimate cause of his people and paid a heavy price for the freedom and liberation of humanity from oppression. He never compromised his principles and the priorities of the Freedom Movement, always striving for success.
For 26 years he has been held in an inhuman prison. He has been kept away from the world, his people and the peoples of the Middle East for a long time and has been struggling for freedom for more than 30 years. Through the struggle of Abdullah Öcalan's supporters and cadres among his own people and the free peoples of the world, his ideas are now resonating locally and internationally, and he is standing in the way of the invaders. Even those who arrested him are now negotiating with him. So why don't we, who want freedom, protect him? Abdullah Öcalan was neither a primitive nationalist, nor a traditional nationalist, or a religious extremist. He was a fair leftist.
We are a group of intellectuals, journalists, writers, artists and politicians who stand for the freedom and equality of society and we declare the ‘Freedom for Öcalan Initiative' in Iraq. We will work for the recognition and dissemination of his ideas.
It is time for the whole world to unite around this conscientious political prisoner leader who embraces freedom and fights for it and demands this sacred right for all peoples. The freedom and democracy of all societies must be believed in. It is time for this great thinker and his people to live free.”
