The Freedom for Öcalan Vigil was launched on 25 June 2012 to break the isolation of the Kurdish people's leader and to ensure his physical freedom, and it is now in its 515th week.

Members of the Democratic Kurdish Community Center from Dortmund took over the vigil. The group includes activists Xelef Çelik, Erdal Keskin and Vedat Aydın.

Making a statement on behalf of the group, Xelef Çelik said that they took part in the Freedom Vigil on the same date last year.

Xelef Çelik said: "Not all of the 40 million Kurdish people stand up for Leader Apo's freedom. Leader Apo is resisting for his people in Imrali with his struggles, ideas and thoughts."

Çelik continued: "Politics, history and science exist in the spirit and personality of the Leader. Abdullah Öcalan leads his people with his ideas and ideology. But we cannot adequately respond to his efforts."

Çelik stated that the Turkish state is waging a brutal war on the Kurdish people, Kurdistan and the Kurdish Freedom Guerrillas, and emphasized that this war was waged in partnership with the Barzani family. "I hope these attacks will end soon. I believe that the Kurdish people will win with their heroes, and Leader Apo's perspectives."

The activists said that "Kurds living in Europe need to explain the just struggle of the Kurdistan Freedom guerrillas to the peoples of the country we live in. If we cannot raise our voice against these attacks today, something worse will happen tomorrow. Down with treason. Biji Serok Apo."