Protest in London to mark anniversary of Kurdish leader Ocalan’s kidnapping

NOVANEWS

 
Jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, the only prisoner for a decade on the Imrali Island in the Turkish Sea of Marmara.

October 9, 2012
Press release on anniversary of Ocalan’s kidnapping!
8th Oct 2012 Kurdish Federation UK
Contact: Fedbir@gmail.com
Kurdish Federation UK Protest
The venue: Ministry of Foreign Affairs
date and time: 9th October 2012 at 12 o’clock
Abdullah Ocalan lived amongst the Kurds in Syria for many years having made the political decision to direct the struggle for Kurdish rights from outside of Turkey!
His presence there left a lasting legacy amongst the Kurds in Rojava Kurdistan that is evident for all to see as, today, the Kurds in Rojava liberate themselves from many years of brutal Baathist rule!
The Kurds in Rojava loved to have Abdullah Ocalan amongst them and the majority have kept their loyalty to him since he was forced to leave his base in Damascus by threats from Turkey, similar to the threats we hear today towards Syria.
On 9 October 1998, the Kurdish leader was expelled from Syria, where he had been living for many years.
From there he went to Greece, Russia, Italy and then again Russia and Greece before going to Kenya, where, on the evening of 15 February 1999. he was taken on board an aircraft at Nairobi airport and arrested by Turkish military intelligence.
He was then flown to Turkey, being kept blindfolded for most of the flight. On arrival in Turkey, a hood was placed over his head while he was taken to İmralı Prison, on the island of Imrali, where he was held in police custody from 16 to 23 February 1999.
The leader of the Kurdish Freedom Struggle had been kidnapped by an international conspiracy!
Kurdish people all over the world exploded in a outcry of anger and frustration as their leader was captured with the Turkish state declaring victory over the PKK.
Little did the Turkish state know that 13 years later the Kurdish struggle would be at it’s highest intensity with Turkish soldiers dying every day in the middle range intensity war that rages in Turkish occupied Kurdistan today!
A war imposed on the Kurdish freedom movement who seeks a peaceful resolution of the Kurdish Question!
A war that has no military solution!
Abdullah Ocalan remains the one figure that can resolve the conflict in an instant! A towering figure and leader who stands above all with the respect and love of the Kurdish people evident for all to see!
A political and peaceful solution to the Kurdish Question in Turkey is more urgent now as it has ever been in the history of this conflict.
The prime minister of Turkey, Tayyip Erdogan mistakenly thought he could solve the Kurdish Question by military means. He thought he could apply the Sri Lanka model of total military onslaught and annihilation against the Kurdish freedom movement!
Erdogan, in the last 18 months alone has jailed nearly 10,000 Kurdish political activists from all walks of Kurdish life, MPs, Mayors, Councillors, solicitors,www.ekurd.net lawyers, barristers, journalists and rank and file activists from the Kurdish legal party BDP!
He has bombed the Qandil mountains where the PKK is based 24 hours around the clock 7 days a week!
Abdullah Ocalan himself has been kept in isolation for over a year in conditions that are a fragrant breech of international laws of the rights of prisoners! His whole team of lawyers were themselves arrested and charged with ‘terrorist’ related crimes, a charge common to all Kurds who struggle for Kurdish rights in Turkey!
As a result, the Kurdish freedom movement is stronger now than it has ever been!
A political solution is evidently and urgently needed!
For that, we demand that Abdullah Ocalan be released from his isolation and be afforded the rooms and living conditions needed to consult with his lawyers and political comrades in the leadership of the Kurdish movement to present the Kurdish demands to be negotiated with the Turkish government.
The Kurds in Rojava Kurdistan are liberating their country! Instead of pursuing a continued racist and old style Kemalist military approach to the demands of the Kurds, the Turkish state should make peace with the Kurds in Western Kurdistan (N.Syria) and NW Kurdistan (Turkish occupied).
For a prosperous and peaceful coexistence of Turkish, Kurdish, Arab and other people’s of the Middle East it is imperative that Abdullah Ocalan is freed and political negotiations begin for a peaceful solution to the Kurdish Question!
The time is now! Freedom for Abdullah Ocalan! Freedom for all political prisoners in Turkey! Freedom for the the Kurds!
– Peace in Kurdistan, Campaign for a peaceful solution of the Kurdish question