Basel group takes over Freedom for Öcalan Vigil in Strasbourg

The members of the Basel Democratic Kurdish Community Centre have taken over the Freedom for Öcalan Vigil carried out alternately by the Kurdish people living in Europe.

The Freedom for Öcalan Vigil, launched on 25 June 2012 by the Freedom for Öcalan Initiative to lift the isolation against Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan and to secure his physical freedom, has entered week 495.

The protest is carried out in the area where European institutions are found in Strasbourg by a different group of Kurdish people living in Europe and their friends.

A new group of activists from Basel, Switzerland, has taken over the vigil this week. Mehmet Taş, Selman Örge and Mazlum Kocakaya, members of the Basel Democratic Kurdish Community Centre, are in the group.

Group spokesman Mehmet Taş, who took over the vigil for the fourth time since the beginning of the protest, said that the patriotic Kurdish people have continued the vigil for the last 9 years to embrace Öcalan and their values.

Taş said that the Kurdish people and their friends are taking to the streets and demanding the freedom of Öcalan during International Human Rights Week.  

Taş reminded that the Kurdish people have called on the European countries to meet the requirements of their own constitutions based on human rights and democracy. He emphasized that Europe should press Turkey to comply with these conventions of which it is a signatory.

“We are exposing the hypocritical policies of Europe with our vigil. We continue with determination,” Taş said, pointing to the crimes against humanity Öcalan has been subjected to since the first day of the international conspiracy.

“We Kurdish people cannot be free until Öcalan is free,” Taş insisted, adding that the activists would continue their struggle until Öcalan’s freedom is achieved.