Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan Vigil enters week 500

The Freedom for Öcalan Initiative launched the Freedom for Öcalan Vigil in Strasbourg on 25 June 2012 and has entered its 500th week.

The vigil is carried out by Kurdish people and their friends living in Europe. Every week, a different group of activists takes over the action and in week 500, a group from St. Gallen has arrived in Strasbourg.

The group includes Selman Demirtok, Abidin Yılmaz, Emin Uslu and Hacı Yorulmaz.

Speaking on behalf of the group, Selman Demirtok said that no news has been heard from Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan and that all Kurdish people are worried.

Demirtok protested the absolute isolation in which Öcalan is kept and said: “This isolation imposed on the leader of a people is a crime against humanity and at the same time an insult to the people themselves.”

Stating that their interlocutors are the Council of Europe and its affiliated Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), Selman Demirtok called for institutions to fulfil their duties.

Adding that they will continue the vigil until the Kurdish people’s leader regains his freedom, Selam Demirtok added that the 9-year protest in front of European institutions is proof of this determination.