Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan has been in solitary confinement on the prison island of Imrali since his abduction to Turkey in 1999. The last contact with him was a telephone conversation with his brother in spring 2021, which was interrupted after a few minutes. Öcalan last had contact with his lawyers from the Istanbul-based Asrın Law Office in August 2019. After an eight-year interruption, a hunger strike led by politician Leyla Güven, who has since been imprisoned again, resulted in a total of five visits by lawyers. The last family visit to the island was approved in March 2020. Since then, isolation in the high-security prison has been driven to the level of total incommunicado detention.

Members of the Kurdish Revolutionary Youth Movement (Tevgera Ciwanên Şoreşger-TCŞ) and the Movement of Young Women Militants (TekoJIN) started a march yesterday in the Netherlands denouncing the aggravated absolute isolation of Öcalan and demanding his freedom.

The activists gathered at Amsterdam Central Station in the morning to continue their march, but the police informed them with an official document that the march permit was canceled.

The protesters demonstrated until 14:30 to protest this decision and to explain their purpose to the public.

Co-chairs of DEM-NED, co-chairs of the Democratic Kurdish Community Assemblies in Amsterdam, The Hague and Arnhem, spokespersons of the Rotterdam Commune, as well as many participants took part in the demonstration.

Speakers defined the isolation of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan as an unacceptable treatment and demanded his freedom.

The activists called for strong participation in the rally to be held in Cologne on 17 February.