YJK-E Spokesperson: We will not stop until Öcalan’s freedom is achieved

Noting that the 15 April demonstration in Strasbourg will be led by women, YJK-E Spokesperson Kezban Doğan said, "We will not stop until we break this isolation system and ensure the physical freedom of Leader Öcalan."

On 15 April, a sit-in protest will be held in front of the Council of Europe and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) in Strasbourg, France, as part of the "Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, a Political Solution to the Kurdish Question" campaign launched globally on 10 October 2023. Kezban Doğan, spokesperson of the Kurdish Women's Union in Germany (YJK-E), which is part of the organisation of the action, evaluated the aims of the action and the work carried out for the action to ANF.

YJK-E Term Spokesperson Kezban Doğan said that women are taking a leading position in the demonstration to be held in front of the CoE and CPT in Strasbourg on 15 April to draw attention to the aggravated isolation of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan and to demand his physical freedom.

Kezban Doğan said, "The sit-in in Strasbourg on 15 April is also led by women. YJK-E has its roots in YJWK, which was founded in Germany in 1987. On this occasion, I would like to pay tribute to Delal Nurhak, who made great efforts in the establishment of the YJWK and was also its founder. As the oldest women's organisation in Europe, it is one of our duties and responsibilities as YJK-E to take the lead as it is an action that developed within the scope of the "Freedom for Öcalan, a Political Solution to the Kurdish Question" campaign launched on 10 October, as we are based on pioneering in the past, present and future. As women, we have led the protests organised to ensure the physical freedom of our leader before; we will lead this action as well."

Noting that they are carrying out different activities in many states and cities of Germany to ensure strong participation in the demonstration, Kezban Doğan said, "As YJK-E, we are organised in Germany in the form of communes, initiatives and assemblies. We have been carrying out intensive activities in parallel with our other activities for a long time in order to ensure that the participation in the demonstration to be held on 15 April will be strong and powerful. Work in the form of home visits, shopkeeper visits and meetings have been carried out in our areas. The organisations in front of which we will organise the demonstration have a role in this absolute isolation. We will expose the dirty policies of both the Council of Europe and the Committee for the Prevention of Torture. We will be there to remind them that they have violated their own laws and regulations, and that they have a duty and responsibility to stop the isolation imposed not only on Öcalan, the Leader of Peoples, but also on humanity, especially us women."

YJK-E Term Spokesperson Kezban Doğan referred to the importance of the aim and objectives of the action in Strasbourg for Kurdish women and stated that the struggle of Kurdish women against the International Conspiracy continues with new methods. She continued: "The conspiracy process initiated on 9 October 1998 against the Leader of Peoples resulted in his physical captivity on 15 February 1999. During the ongoing International Conspiracy process, the conspiracy was frustrated with the struggle put forward by our Leader and our people. The role of the hegemonic powers in this conspiracy was exposed and the paradigm of our Leader, which we call the Third Birth, reached the peoples and gave them hope. Against these, the sovereign powers, in order to continue the conspiracy process, operated their own laws and regulations on the basis of separating our leader from the people, isolating him, subjecting him to physical and psychological torture. For 22 years of our leader's 25-year period, lawyer and family meetings were prevented with excuses such as ‘defective coaster’ and ‘bad weather’. In these last 3 years, the meetings have been completely prevented. Neither his family nor his lawyers are allowed to meet with him. Isolation is imposed within isolation. Under the name of disciplinary penalties, different pretexts are invented. The sovereign powers that created this system have been silent for 3 years on the calls of Kurdish women and the Kurdish people, as well as different international institutions and organisations around the world, approving this severe state of torture, fascism and absolute isolation system and playing a major role in the perpetration of this system. As Kurdish women living in the diaspora, we have had one slogan for 25 years. We say that Leader Öcalan’s freedom is our freedom. We say that this isolation is not imposed on Leader Öcalan, but on us. For 25 years we have had only one demand: Leader Öcalan’s physical freedom and the recognition of status for the Kurdish people. We will also express this demand in this protest. We will call on these institutions to uphold their own founding objectives. We will call on them to implement the Declaration of Human Rights and all other decisions and laws they have signed. We will call on them to end the isolation imposed against humanity in the person of Leader Öcalan and to exonerate themselves in the eyes of humanity. And with this action, we will declare that we will not stop until this isolation system is broken, Leader Öcalan’s physical freedom is ensured, and that Leader Öcalan is our will."