‘Solidarity with Abdullah Öcalan should be strengthened’

Human rights campaigners Anjuska Weil and Jochi Weil remarked that international solidarity for Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s liberation should be enhanced.

Anjuska Weil, secretary of the Swiss Workers’ Party, who took part in Nelson Mandela’s liberation movements and works on Palestine and Vietnam, recalled that following the 1980 coup, she became interested in refugees from Turkey and Kurdistan, and it was during this time that she encountered the Kurds.

NEED FOR INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY

“A tremendous example of solidarity was given around the world for Nelson Mandela’s freedom,” Anjuska Weil stated, referencing Che Guevara’s words ‘Solidarity is the goodwill of peoples’. She continued, “Today, with the same vigor, we must struggle for the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan, the Kurdish leader who has been imprisoned for 22 years. Just like  Nelson Mandela had become the ‘Madiba’ of the African people, Abdullah Öcalan has become the ‘Apo’ of the Kurds. International solidarity is required for his freedom.” Anjuska Weil stated that she believes a permanent state of peace between the peoples of Turkey and Kurdistan can be achieved if Abdullah Öcalan’s freedom is secured through international solidarity.

OCALAN’S FREEDOM IS THE FREEDOM OF THE KURDISH PEOPLE

Jochi Weil, who has been involved in numerous human rights projects, is also a member of the Zurich-Amed Brotherhood Bridge.

Weil, a criminal law student at the University of St Gallen who studies isolation and segregation, noted that he has been aware of the Kurdish people and liberation movement for a long time.

Jochi Weil, noting that he was impressed by the Kurdish People’s Leader’s expression of his paradigm with more than 10 books he wrote in a solitary cell under severe isolation conditions, said, “In the action I witnessed in Zurich, I saw that the demand for Öcalan’s freedom is fundamentally the freedom of the Kurdish people.”

THE IMPORTANCE OF KURDISH UNITY

Urging the Swiss and other democratic circles around the world to support the Kurdish people, Jochi Weil emphasized the significance of restoring Kurdish national unity as soon as possible. Noting that the solution is through achieving Kurdish unity, Weil added: “Abdullah Öcalan, regarded as a great leader by the Kurdish people and the peoples of the region, must be allowed to live freely. Öcalan’s freedom is something I want as a supporter of the Kurds.”

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