Responding to a call from the Kurdish Democratic Society Center (NCDK), more than 700 people gathered at the La Canebière Sq. in the French city of Marseille and staged a march demanding an end to the aggravated isolation regime imposed upon Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Ocalan. Carrying pictures of the Kurdish activists on hunger strike against isolation and placards reading ‘CPT, immediately visit Imrali’, young demonstrators also carried ‘Rise Up!’ signs.

The march lasted for one hour and reached to the meeting location where the demonstrators observed a minute of silence to remember the martyrs of Kurdistan freedom struggle. Later, Kurdish politician Xebat Ocalan spoke to the participants, and greeted the people of South Kurdistan for their resistance against the Turkish occupation.

After Xebat Ocalan, Kurdish activist on hunger strike, Kerem Solhan joined the meeting via telephone. Solhan thanked the support of the demonstrators and called for expanding solidarity actions.

“How will we destroy the isolation, how will we speak up for the hunger strikers, the youth must focus on these questions. To break the isolation, I say Rise up,” said Ciwan Ferzad Medî, a protestor in Marseille.

“Our revolutionary youth, with the ‘Rise Up’ campaign, will respond to the fascist state of Turkey. As long as the isolation [of Ocalan] is in place, Kurdish youth in Marseille will be in the streets. We will not remain silent about new developments. We will speak up for the activists on hunger strike,” said Soro Yildiz, another demonstrator at La Canebière Square.