In a written statement, Shengal Assembly in Diaspora announced that they are launching a hunger strike in front of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) for the freedom of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan.

The assembly stated that the strategy of sovereign powers in the 21st century was to extend the genocide of peoples, faith groups and other oppressed groups, and to pit these oppressed groups against each other. The assembly said that the recent developments in Kurdistan and the Middle East had nothing to do with any faith and life philosophy, and sovereign powers used ideologies such as nationalism and fundamentalism, the nation state system and the religion of Islam in order to continue their massacres and destroy the cultural values of peoples. Shengal Assembly noted that ISIS gangs continue their massacres of Middle Eastern peoples, and recalled the recent suffering of Êzidî Kurds in Shengal where nearly 7 thousand civilians were massacred and more than 3 thousand Êzidî Kurdish women were forced into sex slavery by ISIS gangs. The assembly emphasized that thousands of Êzidîs migrated to the four parts of Kurdistan and the rest of the world and were forced to constitute the biggest Diaspora in history.

The assembly stated that international sovereign forces and the KDP were the parties responsible for this suffering, and underlined that the lack of self-defense was the main reason for the suffering of Êzidî people that have experienced 72 massacres in history. The assembly stated that these conditions gave birth to the mobilization of Êzidîs and the formation self-defense units in Shengal, and attributed Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan as the main force that developed this mobilization. Shengal Assembly described Öcalan’s strategy of the peoples as the only practical path of liberation for the peoples and faith groups in the Middle East, and described the project based on the peoples’ will that recently emerged in Shengal as the practical example of democratic autonomy.

Shengal Assembly recalled that Kurdish People’s Leader Öcalan has been kept under isolation in İmralı Island for the past 17 years despite this reality, and described Öcalan’s health and security as the future of Êzidî Kurds. The assembly stated that any attack on Öcalan would also be an attack on Êzidî identity, and recalled that there has been no communication with Öcalan since the coup attempt on July 15 and the coup-within-coup of Erdoğan that followed the coup attempt. The assembly criticized international organizations for their silence on the issue, and said that the CPT has failed to fulfill its duty of visiting İmralı Island and easing Kurdish people’s concerns over Öcalan’s health and security.

Shengal Assembly emphasized that the concerns over Öcalan have reached their peak, and announced that they are launching a hunger strike in order to show their objection to Öcalan’s condition and ensure the health and security of Öcalan. The assembly stated that the hunger strike would begin in front of the CPT building in Strasbourg, France on August 23 after the press statement in this location.

Shengal Assembly noted that several institutions and individuals would join the hunger strike and called upon all democratic groups to support Êzidî people in their struggle to protect their faith and leader.