The Freedom Vigil, which has been continuously carried out in Strasbourg, France since 2012 to demand Abdullah Öcalan’s freedom, has entered its 693rd week.
This week’s vigil was taken over by Ali Kocademir, Yusuf Binici and Mehmet Bayhan, who arrived from Hildesheim.
Ali Kocademir explained that they took over the vigil in the name of the Kurdish People’s Assembly of Hildesheim. He stressed that their participation aimed to break the isolation imposed on Abdullah Öcalan and to defend his legal rights. Kocademir added: “There is a duty here for everyone. I call on all our assemblies to embrace the Vigil for Abdullah Öcalan more strongly. At a time when Öcalan has initiated a new process, this will allow us to strengthen his hand; it will enable him to work more freely with society and to move more comfortably. With the right to hope, Öcalan will achieve freedom and will be able to develop direct relations with his interlocutors.”
Kocademir stated that Abdullah Öcalan holds crucial ideas for the Middle East in terms of a new understanding, a new culture, and a new order. He pointed out that imperialist powers keep Öcalan in captivity to prevent these ideas from spreading.
Kocademir criticized the denial of the right to hope for such a leader who dissolved the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), ended armed struggle, and opened the way for social peace with a new paradigm. Kocademir noted that the democratic model in Northern and Eastern Syria, where all rights, beliefs, and cultures coexist, is based on Öcalan’s ideas.