Calling the rally in Cologne on Saturday one of the largest protest actions in recent years, KON-MED said that the demonstration showed how important and urgent it is to implement the demand for freedom for Abdullah Öcalan.
Tens of thousands of people from all over Germany and other European countries demonstrated in Cologne on Saturday for the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan and a peaceful political solution to the Kurdish question.
The Kurdish umbrella organization in Germany, KON-MED, released a statement thanking those who took part in the demonstration.
"Leader Öcalan, who has been kept in isolation for 25 years by an international conspiracy, was embraced with the spirit of 17 February 1999,” said KON-MED and continued: “Our patriotic people, assemblies, women and youth living in Germany mobilized for weeks and worked hard to ensure that the participation was at a level worthy of the values of our struggle. This determined work in Germany and all countries of Europe was the answer to the conspirators.”
“The women and youth who mobilized with all their strength for the 17 February rally were the honorable workers of this tremendous achievement. Before the march, visits were made to all social places and homes. With public meetings held in many places, our people were informed and mobilized for the history-making march in Cologne," said the statement, which further included the following:
"Internationalists, friends, revolutionaries, democrats and intellectuals, who made great efforts in the campaign, contributed to the great march with their mass participation. They embraced Leader Öcalan and expressed their support for the Kurdish freedom struggle.
The hypocritical attitude of international institutions, the Council of Europe and the CPT, and their silence against the inhuman isolation (of Abdullah Öcalan) were exposed. They demanded that the international institutions, the Council of Europe and the CPT give up their attitude of playing three monkeys and clamping down on the Kurdish people and act according to democracy and human rights.
With the 17 February rally, we are in a process where the struggle is carried to all social dimensions. We will take the determined stance we displayed in Cologne to a new level and socialize it.
We would like to thank everyone who mobilized for the Cologne rally, especially all our assemblies, all our federation administrations, all our component structures, and everyone who worked with discipline in the field."
