On the occasion of the 21st anniversary of the abduction of Abdullah Öcalan from Kenya to Turkey, a demonstration organized by the Kurdistan Committee and the Free Women's Union (YJA) took place on Saturday in Armenia's capital Yerevan under the motto "Freedom for Öcalan - political status for Kurdistan". The crowd gathered in front of the Opera House and loudly waved flags and banners with the image of the Kurdish leader as they marched to the Shahumyan Square where a rally was held.

In a speech, Kinyas Hasanov, a Kurdish member of parliament who is also the co-chairman of the Kurdish Union in Armenia, pointed out the ignorance of international organisations regarding the conditions of solitary confinement on the prison island of Imrali, where Öcalan has been held hostage since his abduction from the Greek embassy in Kenya, in breach of international law. The silence is remarkable when one considers that Öcalan has been resisting the most inhuman and, for most people, most unbearable conditions for 21 years, Hasanov said. "In the face of this, it should be the duty of all of us to completely crush the ongoing conspiracy and strengthen our resistance at all levels."

After further speeches by Ila Toymasyan, co-chair of the Kurdistan Committee, and activists Jenika Qadir and Şêx Tahir Broyan, the rally ended with a poetry recital by Zîlan Reşoyan.

The international conspiracy

Kurdish society describes the period from October 9, 1998 to February 15, 1999 as an international conspiracy, during which the PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan, who is regarded as the mastermind of the Kurdish liberation movement and the most important political representative of the Kurds, was first declared persona non grata in Syria and then underwent an odyssey through various European countries before being deported from the Greek embassy in the Kenyan capital Nairobi and handed over to Turkey in violation of international law.