Launched on June 5, 2025 by the European Forum for Freedom and Peace (EFFP), the “I Want to Visit Öcalan” campaign has completed its second month.
An international campaign titled ‘I want to visit Abdullah Öcalan’ was launched on June 5 under the initiative of the European Forum for Freedom and Peace (EFFP), calling for in-person visits to be allowed with Öcalan at Imralı Prison. The campaign was initiated following the Kurdish leader’s February 27 ‘Call for Peace and Democratic Society’, after which the PKK declared a unilateral ceasefire and convened a congress soon thereafter, deciding to end its armed struggle against the Turkish state.
In their statement marking the launch of the campaign, the organizers called on the international public to support the current process for democracy and peace in Turkey through the resolution of the Kurdish Question: “Both Mr. Öcalan’s call and the PKK’s actions have created a historic opportunity for a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question. It is clear that this opportunity offers a strong basis not only for peace, but also for the realization of freedom, equality, justice and democracy – in other words, for a genuine solution. We, the founders of the European Forum for Peace and Freedom, are determined to ensure that this great opportunity is not squandered.”
As part of the campaign, official requests have been submitted to Turkey’s Ministry of Justice. In addition, video messages have been shared on social media to support the appeal.
In a statement on August 5, the EFFP said the following:
“As the European Forum for Freedom and Peace, we launched the campaign “I Want to Visit Öcalan” on June 5. As we launched this campaign, the echoes of the “Call for Peace and a Democratic Society” announced by Abdullah Öcalan, the founding leader of the PKK, who has been held in isolation on Imrali Island by the Turkish state for 26 years, on February 27, were still resonating.
Following this call, the PKK declared a unilateral ceasefire and, shortly thereafter, convened a congress and decided to end its armed struggle against the Turkish state. On July 11, in accordance with the decisions of the PKK congress, 30 guerrillas led by Bese Hozat burned their weapons and declared that they would continue their struggle within the legal framework under the name “Group for Peace and Democratic Society.”
Both Öcalan’s call and the PKK’s move have created a historic opportunity for a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question. It is clear that this opportunity not only offers a chance for peace but also for the realization of freedom, equality, justice, and democracy—in other words, a genuine solution. As the founders of the European Forum for Peace and Freedom, we have continued our campaign to contribute to this significant opportunity that has emerged.
The international campaign “I Want to Visit Öcalan” has received support from numerous institutions, artists, academics, and parliamentarians across a wide geographical area stretching from Europe to Africa and from Kurdistan to Latin America over the past two months. Below is an updated list of individuals and organizations supporting the campaign, categorized by group:
Institutional Participation
Party of the European Left
The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL
Italian Recreational and Cultural Association (ARCI, Associazione Ricreativa e Culturale Italiana)
Catholic Bishops’ Conference – South Africa
Evangelical Alliance – South Africa
Italian Confederation of Grassroots Committees (Confederazione dei Comitati di Base, Cobas)
Swiss political party BastA! (Basels Starke Alternative)
OSTA
TAESA
NAV-BEL
transform!europe
International Peace Research Association (IPRA) – ABD
Mathare Social Justice Centre – Kenya, Nairobi
Zimbabwe People’s Land Rights Movement
Representatives of supporting organizations and activists
Ashish Kothari – Co-founder of the environmental action group Kalpavriksh
Barbara Steiner – transform!europe
Danielle Simonnet – Member of the French National Assembly for the 15th arrondissement of Paris
Walter Baier – President of the European Left Party
Ferron Coll i Soi – Catalonia Advisory Council, International Secretary
Franziska Stier – BastA!, General Secretary
Hilary Zhou – Zimbabwe People’s Land Rights Movement, National Coordinator
Jakob Migenda – German Left Party
Lord Maurice Glasman – One of the founders of the Blue Labour movement, political theorist, academic
Martin Schirdewan – Co-Chair of the European Parliament’s Left Group
Mike Arnott –Dundee Trade Union Council, Secretary
Pedro Lobera – OSTA, General Secretary
Prof. Dr. Matt Meyer – IPRA General Secretary, USA
Rev. Moss – General Secretary, Evangelical Alliance of South Africa
Some of the individual supporters
Alan Michael Lapsley – South African Anglican priest, prominent figure in the anti-apartheid resistance. Founder of the Institute for Healing of Memories.
Alenka Zupančič – Professor, Philosophy and Psychoanalysis at The European Graduate School / EGS. Nova Goricia. Slovenian philosopher whose work focuses on psychoanalysis and continental philosophy.
Anuradha Chenoy – Professor, Jindal Global University, India, expert on gender, militarization, international relations, and alternative security policies; active member of the Asia Europe Peoples Forum and the International Peace Bureau.
Federico Venturini – Italian academic and activist; known for his work on urban rights, ecosocialism, and local resistance. University of Udine, Italy
Elisabeth Grosz – Australian philosopher, feminist theorist, and professor in the United States
Gerry Adams – Honorary President of Sinn Féin, Northern Ireland
Hilary Zhou – ZPLRM Coordinator
Jeremy Corbyn – Former leader of the British Labour Party (2015–2020), British parliamentarian and peace activist, co-founder of Your Party (2025).
Josu Urrutikoetxea – High-ranking member of the ETA organization, diplomat, former member of parliament
Ken Loach – British film director and activist
Kostis Moudatsos – Cretan artist, painter, and musician
Livia Mattmüller – German activist
Maurice Glasman (Baron Glasman) – British academic and politician. One of the founders of the Blue Labour movement
Miloon Kothari – UN human rights expert, lawyer, New Delhi, India, and Geneva, Switzerland. Member of the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, and chair of UPR Info
Rahila Gupta – Writer, journalist, activist, editor of Southall Black Sisters, and member of the Management Committee, United Kingdom
Slavoj Žižek – Professor, University of Ljubljana, New York University, and University of London, Slovenian neo-Marxist sociologist, philosopher, and cultural critic, co-founder of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25)
Srećko Horvat – Croatian philosopher, writer, and political activist
Delegations that visited Turkey in the context of the campaign
I – Thirty-nine academics, journalists, writers, lawyers, politicians, and human rights defenders visited Istanbul on July 1–2 to support the Campaign and held various meetings.
II – Seven young people from the ‘Insisting on Freedom Initiative’, which was established by young Europeans, applied to the Ministry of Justice on July 24 to meet with Abdullah Öcalan. A group of young people who came together in Europe and identify themselves as internationalists announced that they had established an initiative to secure the physical freedom of Abdullah Öcalan and contribute to the democratic resolution of the Kurdish question. The group held numerous meetings and talks, including with the DEM Party and Asrın Law Office in Istanbul.
III – On July 28, 100 women from Latin America and France, including well-known community leaders, feminist collectives, and human rights defenders, submitted an official request to the Ministry of Justice to visit Abdullah Öcalan.
One hundred women from Argentina, Guatemala, Bolivia, Chile, France, Uruguay, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Honduras, Nicaragua, Brazil, and Ecuador, including many well-known activists, spiritual indigenous leaders, collectives, and feminists, submitted a joint letter to officials at the Ministry of Justice. In the letter and messages shared on social media, they emphasized that securing the freedom of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan would pave the way for peace in the Middle East and ultimately for global peace.
Conclusion: Dialogue, not isolation; peace, not war
The “I Want to Visit Öcalan” campaign is not merely a request for a visit. This campaign is a call from a rising global conscience against the Imrali system, which has become a symbol of isolation that continues in the 21st century, and a symbol of policies that seek to stifle hopes for peace, and of intractability. The new era that began with Abdullah Öcalan’s Call for Peace and a Democratic Society on February 27 presents a unique opportunity for the silence of weapons and the opening of democratic grounds for resolution. Therefore, the campaign is not merely a defense of the right to visit, but also an assertion of the peoples’ right to peace and freedom.
The voices of hundreds of individuals and organizations from different continents, faiths, political traditions, and social struggles participating in the campaign represent a shared determination to come together on common ground for the construction of a peaceful future in the Middle East and around the world. The continuation of isolation is not only the imprisonment of a prisoner, but also the hostage-taking of the democratic right of peoples. Yet we know that dialogue, not isolation, and peace, not war, are the keys to a lasting solution.
This campaign has once again demonstrated that defending peace requires courage, perseverance, and global solidarity. The task now is to raise this voice even louder and make the lifting of isolation and the resumption of negotiations with Öcalan for a democratic solution to the Kurdish question one of the main priorities of the international community.”
‘I Want to Visit Öcalan!’ campaign kicks off
A new campaign was launched by the European Forum for Freedom and Peace (EFFP). The campaign is called “I Want to Visit Öcalan”, and the organizers “call on the international public to support the …
