Imprisoned for more than 24 years on the prison island of Imrali, the Kurdish people's leader, Abdullah Öcalan, has been held incommunicado for 30 months now, without any contact with the outside world. The complete lack of information regarding the situation of Öcalan and his three fellow prisoners – Hamili Yıldırım, Ömer Hayri Konar and Veysi Aktaş – raises growing concerns about their safety and health. Countless requests for visits filed for years by the lawyers and families of Imrali detainees have gone unanswered.

People took to the streets in the Tirbespiyê district of Qamishlo Canton in North-East Syria on Thursday to demand freedom for Abdullah Öcalan.

The demonstration was organized by the Syrian Revolutionary Youth Movement and Young Women’s Union and attended by residents of the district and nearby villages, members of revolutionary youth movements, women’s movements, political parties, non-governmental organizations, tribal leaders and notables.

Following a march accompanied by slogans such as “We will break the isolation” and “We will win the freedom war”, the activists made a statement to the press.

Tirbespiyê Young Women’s Union Executive Board member Kinda Kenan denounced the policies of isolation and torture implemented against Öcalan and pointed out that the Turkish state sought to separate Öcalan from the people by subjecting him to isolation.

“To enlighten the oppressed peoples’ path to freedom, we will work to organize society, young women and men in accordance with the principles of revolutionary popular war and the ideas of Öcalan,” Kinda said.