The third day of the "Journey for Freedom" through North Rhine-Westphalia is dedicated to the struggles of young women. Hundreds of people are taking part in the long march for the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan.
Almost 200 Kurdish and internationalist activists from Germany, Switzerland, France, England, Spain, Italy, Bolivia and other countries have been marching for the physical freedom of Abdullah Öcalan through North Rhine-Westphalia since the beginning of the week. The multi-day demonstration is taking place as a "Journey for Freedom" and will end in Cologne on 8 September. On the first day, the participants covered a distance of about 25 kilometres from Dortmund to Bochum. On Tuesday, they covered over 18 kilometres to Essen.
On Tuesday evening, the participants met at the Kurdish Community Centre in Essen to discuss possibilities for action against the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan. The PKK founder and Kurdish leader has been held on the Turkish prison island of Imrali in the Sea of Marmara since 1999. In prison, he has given important impulses for a model of society based on free women, grassroots democracy and social ecology, which inspires progressive movements worldwide and is being implemented in the autonomous region of northern and eastern Syria (Rojava). There has been no sign of life from Öcalan and his three fellow prisoners since March 2021, nor have their lawyers or families been in contact with them. Öcalan is considered a key figure for a solution to the Kurdish question and is completely isolated. The Turkish state, with international backing, is taking on the role of enforcer. The abduction of Abdullah Öcalan on 15 February 1999 in Kenya and his extradition to Turkey was carried out with the cooperation of the intelligence services of several states.
Today's stage of the "Journey for Freedom" leads from Oberhausen to Duisburg and is dedicated to the struggles of young women. The activists gathered at Oberhausen main station in the morning and chanted "Sara, Rojbîn, Ronahî - Jin Jiyan Azadî!" in memory of the three Kurdish women murdered by the Turkish secret service in Paris in 2013. Many of the young women wore purple scarves. Today, the demonstration is led by a banner with the inscription "Jin Jiyan Azadî - Serbixe Azadî" (Woman Live Freedom - Win Freedom). This is also the tenor of a current campaign by TekoJIN, the "Movement of Combative Young Women".
