Freedom Vigil in Strasbourg taken over by activists from Aarau

The Freedom Vigil, which was launched by the Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan Initiative in Strasbourg, France on 25 June 2012 in order to break the absolute isolation and ensure physical freedom of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan, continues in its 496th week. This week, members of the Democratic Kurdish Community Centre in Aarau took over the vigil.

‘Silence of international powers encourages the Turkish state’

Speaking on behalf of the new action group, Serdar Turan said, “The leader of a people has been held under aggravated isolation on an island for years, and disallowed to contact his lawyers and family for the last five years.” Remarking that the Turkish state commits a crime against humanity by disregarding both its own law and international conventions that it signed, Turan stressed, “It is a moral responsibility for all the Kurds to stand against this unlawfulness”. He urged everyone to support the actions for the freedom of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan.

The silence of international powers encourages the Turkish state, said Turan, stressing that the states claiming to be defending human rights ignore human rights and democracy when the Kurds who are subject to daily massacres are in question. The activist defined this hypocritical politics as complicity in crimes committed by the Turkish state.

Indicating the Freedom Vigil which has been ongoing uninterrupted for 10 years, Turan said, “This longtime vigil has a historical significance; it continues before the institutions and countries that are parts of the international conspiracy.”

Serdar Turan called upon all the Kurds living in Europe and their friends to expand the resistance in Imralı to everywhere.