The long march promoted by the Kurdish youth movement for the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan ended on Friday night in Aachen. The day before the march had been attacked by police in Cologne, where the participants were surrounded for hours. The last people could only come out of the blockade at half past two in the morning.

Nevertheless, the young Kurds and internationalists from several countries met at the main station in Aachen to end their demonstration - which started in Essen on 11 September - with a rally. Speeches in Kurdish, English, German, Spanish, Italian and Turkish made it clear that the long march had reached its goal despite the provocations that had taken place.

Çekdar Serhat explained on behalf of the Kurdish youth movement that the demonstration was carried out to demand freedom for Abdullah Öcalan and to express solidarity with the guerrillas fighting in Kurdistan. "We ended our long march here in Aachen. – he said - However, our freedom march will continue." The speeches pointed out Öcalan's key role in solving the Kurdish question as well as the worldwide dissemination of his ideas of a just social order: "This paradigm gives us hope for another world and we will fight for it.”

The young activists will take part in the 30th International Kurdish Culture Festival in the Netherlands today.