Parties and women's organizations active in the autonomous region of North and East Syria have called on the Council of Europe, and specifically the CPT, to take active steps to lift Abdullah Öcalan's isolation for a new resolution process.
On the occasion of the 73rd birthday of Abdullah Öcalan on April 4, parties and women's structures active in the autonomous region of North and East Syria came together in Qamishlo on Sunday to demand the physical freedom of the Kurdish leader.
In a joint statement issued by a total of 31 organizations belonging to the Syria-wide alliance "Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan," the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) was called upon to follow up its reports on the inhumane conditions of imprisonment on Imrali with action and to actively work to lift the isolation. Öcalan has been held as a political hostage on the Turkish prison island in the Sea of Marmara since 1999, most of the time under severe solitary confinement conditions.
"The total isolation pursued on Imrali is considered the decisive cause of the Turkish state's ongoing course of escalation and war against the Kurds and the lack of solution to the Kurdish question," Xîtam Mihemed of the alliance, whose members include the Future Party of Syria, the Assyrian Unity Party, the PYD and the women's umbrella organization Kongra Star, said at the meeting held at the premises of the Department of Foreign Relations.
However, as long as the Kurdish issue remains unresolved, he said, many other regional problems - both in the four nation-states that claim Kurdistan and in other parts of the Middle East - cannot be overcome. "That is why Abdullah Öcalan must be released. Not only in view of the fact that he is a symbol of the legitimate Kurdish liberation struggle. Abdullah Öcalan is also the only person with a comprehensive program for conflict resolution and democratization in a region whose most pressing problem is the Kurdish question."
The appeal of the alliance was directed equally to all political and civil society parties and groups in the northeastern Syrian autonomous region to join the initiative. “It is indispensable to play a collective role in the implementation of the demand "Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan" and at the same time to make visible that Turkey not only plays a key role in the lack of solution of the Kurdish question, but also strongly influences the developments in Kurdistan and the rest of the Middle East with its conflict-oriented policy and deepens existing crises.”
The Syrian initiative "Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan" was launched on October 9, 2019. On that day, the Turkish invasion of Serêkaniyê and Girê Spî began.
