Kurdish people and their friends are taking to the streets today to mark the 25th anniversary of the forced departure of PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan from Syria, which marks the beginning of the "international conspiracy" that led to the deportation of the Kurdish leader from Kenya to Turkey on 15 February 1999.

Concerns over the situation of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan increased after the Executive Council Member of the Kurdistan Democratic Communities Union (KCK), Sabri Ok said in an interview on the Kurdish TV Channel Sterk TV on July 8 that threatening letters had recently been sent to Abdullah Öcalan anonymously via the Imrali prison administration.

Activists from the Kurdish youth movements started a two-day march in Athens under the motto "Cenga Azadiyê Serbixin" [Win the Freedom War], a campaign launched by the Kurdish youth movements Komalên Ciwan and Komalên Jinên Ciwan in July.

The march organised by the Revolutionary Youth Movement (Tevgera Ciwanên Şoreşger,TCŞ) and the Movement of Combative Young Women (Jinên Ciwan ên Têkoşer, TekoJIN) denounced the recent wave of genocidal attacks by the Turkish state against North-East Syria which has already claimed dozens of lives.

After gathering at the Marathon Square, the Kurdish activists held a minute of silence in memory of the martyrs who fell in the freedom struggle in Kurdistan, paying tribute to PKK guerrillas Rojhat Zilan and Erdal Şahin, who carried out a sacrificial action in front of the Turkish Interior Ministry in the highly secured government quarter in Ankara on 1 October.

The activists called on the Kurdish youngsters in Europe to join the mobilization for freedom against the 24 years of captivity of the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan.

The demonstrators vowed to defend every place where the democratic nation paradigm of Öcalan springs to life.