"Isolation, not in Imrali, but in a normal prison would prove unbearable for any prisoner, even for 3 years, let alone 20. Yet our Leader has been standing upright for 20 years and is resisting for the freedom of Kurds.”
The hunger strike in the Armenian capital Yerevan enjoys the support of the Kurdistan Committee of Armenia, the Armenian Kurdistan Union, the Armenian Free Women's Union and the Armenian Representation of the Shengal Council.
The action is carried out by Kurds living in Elegez and Oktoberyan and was explained in a joint press release. The hunger strike will be taken over every two days by a different group of activists.
The hunger strike is carried out in the Kurdistan Committee office. Speaking on behalf of the activists were the Kurdistan Union President and Kurdish member of the Armenian parliament, Kinyas Hemit, the chair of the Kurdistan Committee Jinika Qadir, and the founding member of the Shengal Council Silo Dirboyan.
Kinyas Hemit said: “Our Leader was captured as a result of an international conspiracy, and as we know, a heavy isolation is imposed on our Leader.
This isolation is actually experienced not only by our Leader for the past 20 years but by all Kurds.
Isolation, not in Imrali, but in a normal prison would prove unbearable for any prisoner, even for 3 years, let alone 20. Yet our Leader has been standing upright for 20 years and is resisting for the freedom of Kurds.”
Hemit added that today Kurds are subjected to massacres. “Wherever there is a Kurd - he said - the Turkish state wants to kill. Now they want to attack Rojava. No matter what the Turkish state does, where the philosophy, the ideology of Önder Apo is rooted, it cannot be eradicated. We, as Kurds of Armenia, condemn the isolation imposed on our leadership. We will continue our struggle until the freedom of the Leader Apo is reached."
Hemit also condemned the attacks of the Turkish state on Maxmur and Shengal on 13 December.
The Chairman of the Kurdistan Committee Jinika Qadir said: “Not only the Kurds but the entire world should reject the isolation imposed on our leadership. Because the freedom of the leadership means freedom of the Kurds, the Middle East and the world means.’’
Qadir emphasized that Kurds should trust their own self-defence forces.
Silo Dirboyan, founding member of the Shengal Council, said: “We have started a hunger strike to demand the lifting of the isolation imposed on leader Apo and to ensure his freedom. Our people crying out to the whole world the wrong of 100 years of war.”
Dirboyan also stressed the need to convene the National Congress.
