Demo in Naples calls for freedom for Öcalan

The ‘Freedom Ship’ activists, who left Lavrio, in Athens, on November 9, have made a symbolic landing in Naples today, the 23rd anniversary of the arrival of Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan in Italy. While demanding the freedom of Öcalan, the action also aims at bringing the Kurdish leader’s democratic confederalism project to wider audiences and to increase the struggle against the attacks of the Turkish state.

Around 40 people, among them intellectuals, writers, journalists, lawyers, civil society representatives and activists from different parts of the world, were welcomed by hundreds of people in Naples.

Following a press statement at the port of Naples, the crowd started marching to the governor’s office. During the course of the march through the streets of the historical city, the activists read out statements calling for the freedom of the Kurdish leader who has been jailed in the island prison of Imralı since his forced departure to Turkey as a result of an international plot in 1999. Since the last visit of the team of lawyers on August 7, 2019, the Turkish authorities have not responded to any of the continuous requests for a visit to him.

Speaking during the demonstration in front of the governor’s office, Nursel Aydoğan representing the Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan Initiative said, “We are here amongst our friends, amongst our comrades. Freedom is the one single value in human history that does not disappear. Very heavy prices have been paid for this, as by Öcalan, who has been paying a price for the freedom of the Kurdish people.

Aydoğan continued, “Mr. Öcalan, as a folk leader and a revolutionary, has already taken his place in the world peoples’ struggle for freedom and humanity. His exposure to the torture system at Imrali for 23 years is no longer acceptable to us. This has no place in international law, in Turkey’s domestic law or in humanitarian law. Aggravated strict isolation is neither lawful nor conscientious.”

“Today, November 12, when we arrived in Italy, is the day when Mr. Abdullah Öcalan was taken to Greece, from there to Moskow and then to Italy through an international plot. Our true alliance is not the states but the peoples. The more the peoples’ solidarity grows, the clearer the way to Mr. Öcalan’s freedom will get. Mr. Öcalan cannot be isolated and imprisoned anymore. The Kurdish question in Turkey can never be resolved unless Mr. Öcalan is freed.”