Internationalists march from Luxembourg to Strasbourg

The internationalist long march kicked off under the motto "Freedom for Öcalan, status for Kurdistan, shoulder to shoulder against fascism".

The fourth Long March organised by internationalists under the motto "Freedom for Öcalan, status for Kurdistan, shoulder to shoulder against fascism" has kicked off in Luxembourg on Monday.  

120 activists from Latin America, Spain, Iran, South Africa, Canada, Ecuador, Canary Islands and Australia are partaking in the march.

In speeches in English, French and German, the activists denounced the isolation of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan as unacceptable and saluted the Rojava Revolution, stressing that the system built in Rojava could offer a solution to all issues created by the capitalist system.

In line with the decision of the organising committee, the march will lead through cities this year. Outside of the cities, they will be transported to stopover destinations in cars.

The internationalists will cover 15 kilometers.

The press statement of the activists reads as follows:

“Despite the violations that are evident in the CPT reports, Mr. Öcalan continues to be kept under absolute isolation indefinitely where he is not even allowed to meet with his lawyers or family. As of April 4th, 2010, Öcalan will be older than 71 years old presenting us with a moral and humanitarian crisis.

Undoubtedly, the main reason for such a heavy punishment and absolute isolation is due to, according to the definition of the former president of Turkey, Suleyman Demirel: Öcalan being the revolutionary leader of the 29th Kurdish rebellion which occurred last century. It’s clear that all those rebellions have a common cause due to the Republic of Turkey continuously violating international law by forcefully assimilating and Turkifying primarily Kurds and other minorities, leaving them without a political status.

With this latest revolt, the Kurds have exercised the “absolute right to resist”, which is stated in the internationally recognized introduction of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Mr. Öcalan is therefore the essential leader of this last rebellion. It is for this reason that he has been faced with this degree of unlawful proceedings.

Prior to the Kurdish problem being brought to the world’s attention, even before the international conspiracy between nations that ended with Öcalan being imprisoned on Imralı Island, Mr. Öcalan declared unilateral ceasefires in 1993, 1995 and 1998 presenting a peaceful solution to the issue respecting the integrity of the Turkish state. However the Republic of Turkey rejected these historical opportunities for peace and instead insisted on destroying, through policies of eradication and denial, all the national rights of the Kurdish people. Despite Mr. Abdullah Öcalan being held in Imralı prison under such severe conditions, between 1999-2004, 2006 and again in 2009 and finally in 2013, he declared unilateral ceasefires and continued his peaceful solution efforts conducted with precision.

Apart from these strategic political maneuvers, since 1999 imprisoned on Imralı Island, through researching and working on thousands of books, he has developed democratic theses which provide solutions to not only the Kurdish and Kurdistan issues, but also the problems of the Middle East. Particularly Öcalan’s political theses in “the Defenses” that he presented to the ECtHR, are being appreciated and admired by modern political philosophers for his arguments on the democratic nation, democratic autonomy, democratic confederalism, women’s freedom and socio – ecological theses which offer feasible solutions to the main political, social and cultural problems of the Middle East.

It is in accordance with Mr. Öcalan’s political theses, that the Rojava and Syrian democratic revolution has been taken up by the North and East Syrian people, namely the Kurds, Arabs, Syriacs, Armenians, Turkmens and Chechens. They have gained the sympathy of all the democratic nations and organizations of the world in their fight against ISIS and in their struggle to institutionalize a new democratic political-social structuring of Democratic Autonomous government in the Middle East. Without a doubt, in order to be conscientious and fair, it is necessary to identify and appreciate the intellectual labor behind Mr. Öcalan’s volumes of books he submitted to the ECtHR.

Again it should be emphasized, that starting in 2013 over nearly a thirty month period, during the negotiations with Turkish state delegates ongoing on Imralı Island, Mr. Öcalan was acting as Chief Negotiator for all of Turkey’s Kurds. The Imralı delegation, with the government’s blessing, carried out diplomatic transmissions between state bodies and KCK executives during this period. However, this process, which started with great hopes, was ended swiftly by President Tayyip Erdoğan and his violent supporters of the Turkish state. Following the collapse of the delegation over the last five years, a bloody conflict has re-ensued. Also of great importance, is that the Turkish state today, is not only against the freedom struggle in Turkey’s Kurdistan but also the achievements gained by the Kurds of Iraq and Syria. To the extent that Turkey has recently over the years, continues to cooperate with jihadist proxies such as HTS and SAR including DAESH in order to prevent any kind of political status gains for Kurds in the region. There has been a number of political organizations that have factually documented evidence of these atrocities by the Turkish state.

To summarize, in order to one day reach a fair and democratic solution to the Kurdish problem, it is imperative that Mr. Öcalan be released from prison and that political status for the Kurdish people within the framework of international law is established. Thereby, granting a solution to the Middle East crisis and establishing a lasting and dignified peace for the region.”