For twenty-seven years, Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan has been held in conditions of intense isolation in Imralı Island Prison. Since 1999, he has been denied the most basic rights afforded under international law, contact with his lawyers, family visits, and even the right to communicate with the outside world. This prolonged and total isolation is not just the imprisonment of one person; it is the imprisonment of peace itself and an ongoing attack on the right of a people to seek justice and freedom.
On 8 November, peopl from Kurdistan, Europe and around the world will attend the march organized in Cologne to demand “Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, A Political Solution to the Kurdish Question.”
The KCDK-E said that “the march will be a day of international solidarity, cultural celebration and political will,” and added: “The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled that the aggravated life sentence imposed upon Mr Öcalan violates the “Right to Hope” — a fundamental human right which forbids lifelong imprisonment without the possibility of release. The denial of this right is a denial of the very principle of human dignity — the idea that every person must have the possibility of transformation, dialogue, and freedom.
And yet, from the depths of isolation, Abdullah Öcalan continues to lead a moral and intellectual resistance that has inspired peoples and movements around the world. He has devoted his life to ending cultural genocide against the Kurdish people and to building a society based on freedom, equality and coexistence. His political and philosophical paradigm — Democratic Confederalism — proposes a system of self-governance rooted in women’s liberation, ecological balance, and grassroots democracy. It is a model that transcends borders and ethnic divisions, offering a path toward peace for all peoples of the Middle East — Kurds, Turks, Arabs, Armenians, Persians, Assyrians and others — who have long suffered under war, patriarchy and centralised oppression.”
The call for the march said: “On 27 February 2025, Mr Öcalan issued a historic call for ‘Peace and a Democratic Society’. He invited all actors involved— the Turkish state, Kurdish political representatives, the peoples living within the borders of the Turkish Republic and international actors — to renew dialogue and open the way for a peaceful political resolution. His call was clear: the time for violence has passed, and a democratic transformation built on the principles of coexistence, equality and nonviolence must begin.
This call has reverberated deeply in Turkey and beyond. It has inspired a cautious but hopeful process of reconciliation, with new discussions opening between Kurdish and Turkish democratic circles, human rights advocates, and political parties. Yet, this process cannot succeed while its most essential voice remains silenced.”
The call added: “For reconciliation to have meaning, Abdullah Öcalan’s freedom must be recognised as a precondition for lasting peace. Only through his participation can a genuine democratic transition be achieved. His liberation would mark the first real step towards healing a century of conflict and creating a new horizon of coexistence.
Since October 2023, the International Campaign “Freedom for Öcalan – A Political Solution to the Kurdish Question” has grown from a coordinated initiative of leading friends and organisations of the Kurdish people into a worldwide movement. Trade unions, women’s and ecological organisations, peace networks, intellectuals, artists, and parliamentarians have come together across continents — uniting in one voice, demanding for Öcalan to be freed, as one of the most important revolutionary leaders and thinkers of our time.”
The call continued: “From Latin America to Africa, from Asia to Europe, this movement has expanded through marches, vigils, conferences, concerts and acts of creative resistance. It stands as a manifestation of global solidarity — not only with the Kurdish struggle, but between all peoples confronting authoritarianism, patriarchy and ecological destruction. In an age where democracy is being dismantled by an increasingly authoritarian world order, this campaign has become a living expression of a universal truth: the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan is the freedom of all who believe in peace, equality and human dignity.”
Source: ANF News
