The campaign Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan: A Political Solution to the Kurdish Question, has declared 1-10 October Global Free Öcalan Days.
This initiative marks the one-year anniversary of ths campaign, which was launched on 10 October 2023 in Strasbourg, France.
During the «Free Öcalan Global Days» we will organize a series of events in more than 20 countries (Austria, Slovenia, Greece, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Cyprus, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, France, South Africa, Indonesia, Colombia). Including press conferences, seminars and public discussions to promote dialogue and raise awareness. We encourage media representatives to participate, report and amplify the voices of those working for justice and reconciliation.
The campaign wrote: «As we reflect on the past year, we acknowledge the significant progress made in raising awareness of the plight of Abdullah Öcalan, who has endured more than three and a half years of inhumane isolation by the Turkish state. Our campaign has successfully built a broad international network of support, including legal experts, political figures, and human rights defenders committed to Öcalan’s rights and the broader Kurdish issue.»
To mark the anniversary of Öcalan’s expulsion from Syria on 9 October 1998 – the first step in the international conspiracy that led to his abduction – the International Solidarity Network is preparing a hashtag campaign for the evening of 8 October, at 19:00 European time and 20:00 Kurdistan time.
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Booklet about Öcalan launched in Spanish (PDF)
Report on conditions in Imrali prison
To mark the start of the “Free Öcalan Global Days”, the «Campaign for the Freedom of Abdullah Öcalan: A Political Solution to the Kurdish Question» published a report about the conditions in Imrali prison.
According to the report, «Öcalan’s legal rights are severely restricted—he has only had five lawyer visits since 2011 and five family visits since 2014. His trial was condemned as unfair by human rights groups and international courts. The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2005 that his trial was neither independent nor impartial.»
The report added that «Prolonged isolation and solitary confinement, both forms of torture under international law and according to the U.N. Mandela Principles, are routine in İmralı. Reports of Öcalan being poisoned in 2007 and mistreated in 2008 were met with no accountability. A European laboratory confirmed the presence of toxic chromium and strontium in hair samples.
In 2008, Öcalan’s lawyers reported that Öcalan had been dragged by prison personnel to an adjoining room and forced to the ground by three people while his cell was ravaged. When he protested against these brutal measures, he was explicitly threatened with death. His life sentence without parole, in effect, reintroduces the death penalty in Turkey and has since been applied to thousands. Critically ill prisoners, almost all of them Kurdish, are dying in Turkish prisons in significant numbers. Isolation is now the established norm, normalized through decrees and disciplinary penalties that are not embedded in the law.»
The report underlined that «Since Öcalan’s abduction, in 1999, numerous legal applications have been filed in Turkey regarding his isolation, but none have been successful. Requests for lawyer and family visits are routinely ignored or denied. Disciplinary penalties have led to automatic bans on visits, with appeals consistently rejected. Since 2021, the judiciary has not only rejected all requests but also obstructed legal processes, making the domestic legal system ineffective for Öcalan and his associates.
Based on these facts, Turkish domestic law appears to be obstructing Öcalan’s rights, using legal processes to justify his isolation and torture. According to ECtHR decisions, Öcalan’s 25-year imprisonment, which began in 1999, has been under unfair conditions considered as torture. International law and justice demand his release, as he has been denied the right to hope.»
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Mike Arnott: ‘Abdullah Öcalan must be free’.
General Secretary of the Dundee Confederation of Trade Unions, said, ‘Abdullah Öcalan must be free’. The 550,000-strong Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC), with 40 unions and 20 trade union councils, is preparing to make a statement to mark the second anniversary of the international campaign ‘Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, a political solution to the Kurdish question’ which was launched worldwide on 10 October 2023.
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The graphic novel ‘Freedom Will Prevail’ to be launched in Britain
- MADRID – TALK/DEBATE: ‘POLITICAL SOLUTION TO THE SITUATION IN KURDISTAN’ with Kongra Star – 3 October 19.00h Ateneo
- SANTIAGO DE COMPUSTELA: Revolucom social em Rojava – 3 de Outubreo 20h – AULA 8 FACULTADE DE GEOGRAFIA E HISTÓRIA DA USC
- VIGO: 4 October 20.00 Real n12
- BARCELONA : LA MODERNITAT DEMOCRÀTICA I LA DEFENSA DE LA LLENGUA – 4 d’octubre a les 18.00 A l’auditori CIEMEN C/Rocafort 242 Barcelona
- CORUNA: 5 October 20.00 Rua Falperra 13 Coruna
- LISBOA : ‘Liberdade para Ocalan Solução política para a questão Curda ’ 6 de Outubre 16h – Sirigaita Rua dos Anjos
- Euskal Herria – 9 de Octubre
- VALENCIA 9th October
- GRANADA 9 de Octubre
- CATALUNYA 10 October
