Kurdish activists’ vigil in front of the UN headquarters enters its eighth month

Every Wednesday for the past eight months, since January 24, Kurds have protested in front of the UN headquarters in Geneva against the international silence regarding the Turkish attacks on Kurdistan. The protest action was launched by the Democratic Kurdish Community in Switzerland (CDK-S) as part of the “Against isolation, occupation and genocide – time for freedom” campaign.

During today’s action, the activists raised concern over the hunger strike resistance of political prisoners in Turkey and urged international institutions to fulfil their responsibilities.

The activists also distributed booklets which explain Abdullah Öcalan’s ideas. Information is also provided by members of the Freedom for Öcalan Initiative.

The Kurdish activists gathered at the scene in the morning hours and a press release was issued at 14.00 with the arrival of more people.

‘WE WILL EXPAND THE STRUGGLE’

The co-chair of the Kurdish Community Centre, Salih Sağlam, made a speech here and said: “Based on the perspective of our leader’s and guerrillas’ resistance, we will expand the struggle to lift the isolation of our leader and to halt the annihilation and genocide attacks against the Kurdish people and Kurdistan.”

‘WE WILL VOICE OUR DEMANDS IN ENTIRE EUROPE’

Speaking to ANF on behalf of the activists who have been partaking in the sit-in protest for 8 months, Sağlam stated that they will continue the sit-in protest with determination until their demands are met.

“We held talks with human rights organizations including the UN, Doctors Without Borders and local and national press outlets to convey our demands. As a result of our activities in the Geneva cantonal parliament, our call for a parliamentary question to be submitted to the Swiss Federal Parliament to denounce Öcalan’s isolation; for activities to this end to be organised in the presence of  the Geneva Cantonal Parliament and the UN; for the demands of the prisoners in Turkish prisons to be answered; for a delegation to be deployed to examine the situation on-site; for the repression against the Kurdish people, the Kurdish language and the HDP to be stopped, has been answered.

In the meantime, as the Freedom for Öcalan Initiative, we held a series of meetings with Doctors Without Borders as well as human rights institutions to address concerns about the health and life of the Kurdish People’s leader.

All the 57 articles highlighted in our demands have been accepted in the Geneva Parliament.

We continue our multi-faceted efforts to have our demands accepted by the Swiss Federal Parliament and the UN. To this end, we continue our talks with the political parties and parliamentarians, as well as local and national press outlets in Switzerland.”