Vigil in Geneva urges Turkey to secure Öcalan’s physical freedom in response to the historic step

On the 234th week of the sit-in protest in front of the UN, activists stated Abdullah Öcalan’s freedom must be secured in response to the step taken by the Group for Peace and Democratic Society.

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 paid tribute to Mehmet Hayri Durmuş, Kemal Pir, Akif Yılmaz and Ali Çiçek of the ‘Great July 14 Resistance’ in the notorious Diyarbakır Prison in 1982.

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This week’s statement was made by Osman Tekin, co-chair of the Geneva Democratic Kurdish Community Center. Tekin said that the spirit of the July 14 resistance lives on in the actions carried out today for the physical freedom of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan.

Referring to the ceremony held by the Group for Peace and Democratic Society who burned their weapons on July 11 as a concrete response to Abdullah Öcalan’s ‘Call for Peace and Democratic Society,’ Tekin said that the Turkish state must also take steps in response to this historic move.

“The Turkish state must seize this historic opportunity and not just improve Leader Öcalan’s working conditions, but also secure his physical freedom,” said Tekin and emphasized that Öcalan’s freedom is the key to peace and a democratic solution, and of strategic importance both for the peoples of Turkey and for the democratization of the Middle East.

“Until Leader Öcalan is freed, we will continue to gather in this square every Wednesday and reiterate our call to the international community. The source of our resistance is the will of our people. This will can never be surrendered,” he stated.

Activists in this week’s action also denounced the increasing attacks against the Druze community in the Syrian city of Suwayda. Kurdish representatives condemned these ethnic and religiously motivated attacks as unacceptable and called on the international community to take immediate action. The activists pointed out that the genocidal policies targeting the Druze in Suwayda, the Yazidi people in Shengal, the Kurds in Rojava, and the Alevis along the Syrian coast are all part of the same genocidal policy