A vigil by the Democratic Kurdish Community in Switzerland has been taking place in front of the UN headquarters in Geneva since 25 January 2021. Every Wednesday, activists stage a protest in front of the United Nations building to demand the release of Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan. The action is carried out as part of the 'Dem dema azadiye' [Time for Freedom] campaign and directed against the isolation of the Kurdish leader on the Turkish prison island of Imrali, the Turkish occupation attacks on Kurdistan, the massacres committed in Kurdish territories and the silence of the UN.

During this week's demonstration, which is held at a tent set up in Nations Square where the UN Office is located, activists observed a moment of silence in memory of the Kurdistan Freedom Martyrs, in the person of HPG Commander Reşit Serdar (Mehmet Can Gürhan) who was martyred in a clash in the Oremar region on 18 November 2012.

Osman Tekin read a press statement on behalf of the ‘Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, a Political Solution to the Kurdish Question’ campaign committee.

Stating that the lands of the Kurdish people were divided into four parts in Lausanne, Switzerland and left to the mercy of barbaric, racist, genocidal and reactionary states 100 years ago, Tekin said, “The Kurdish people, reborn from its ashes with the paradigm of by Leader Öcalan, continues to be a source of hope and resistance to the oppressed peoples of the world today.”

Denouncing the isolation regime imposed on Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı Island Prison where he has been held since 1999, Tekin drew attention to the fact that isolation is against the norms of international law and the most basic human rights. Tekin emphasised the importance of implementing the Democratic Modernity paradigm against the torture of isolation carried out under the supervision of international states and continued: “At a time when the nation states, which have not created any alternative other than cruelty and pain for the peoples since their establishment, are coming to an end, the only way out for us will be to realise Leader Öcalan’s paradigm of freedom.”

The press statement concluded with a call for participation in the central celebration of the anniversary of the founding of the PKK in Lucerne on Sunday, 24 November.