Vigil in front of the UN headquarters leaves one year behind

For a year now, Kurds and people in solidarity have been demanding the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan and a democratic solution to the Kurdish question in front of the United Nations (UN) headquarters in Geneva. The first rally in the framework of the “Time for Freedom” campaign took place on 25 January 2021. Since then, activists have staged a sit-in in front of the UN building every Wednesday to protest against the international silence on the Turkish campaign of destruction in Kurdistan. In addition to the central demand for freedom for the Kurdish leader and PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan, various current issues have been brought up at the vigil over the course of the year. The UN was urged to act against the war crimes of the Turkish army and to investigate the use of chemical weapons.

Today’s rally was opened with a minute’s silence for those martyred in the Kurdish liberation struggle. Afterwards, Salih Sağlam, the co-chair of the Democratic Kurdish Community Center (CDK) in Geneva, stated that the ignorance of the UN and other international institutions regarding the rights of the Kurdish people is unacceptable.

In his speech, Sağlam also referred to the ongoing campaign for the removal of the PKK from the list of terrorist organisations and said: “The PKK has succeeded in becoming a hope of the peoples worldwide. To all those who do not want to see how connected this movement is to women, nature and life, we will continue to explain everywhere why Abdullah Öcalan must be freed and the PKK must be removed from the terrorist list.”

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