The Freedom for Öcalan Vigil, which was launched in Strasbourg on June 25, 2012, with the aim of achieving the physical freedom of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan and ending the İmralı torture system, continues with determination.
The vigil is held in Strasbourg, where institutions like the Council of Europe, the CPT (Committee for the Prevention of Torture), and the European Court of Human Rights and the European Parliament are located.
The vigil also aims to promote Abdullah Öcalan’s ideas, raise awareness of the Kurdish people’s struggle, and build public pressure on international institutions to take responsibility.
The action, which is carried out every week in front of the Council of Europe by groups of Kurds living in Europe and their friends, entered its 695th week.
In the new week, the vigil was taken over by Kurdish patriots Dadaş Kuyucuoğlu, Ömer Akan and Şêxmus Akbaş.
Group spokesperson Dadaş Kuyucuoğlu condemned the “cowardly” and “unscrupulous” October 9, 1998 conspiracy against Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan.
Kuyucuoğlu condemned the Western powers involved in the conspiracy that led to Öcalan’s departure from Syria and imprisonment in 1999, emphasizing that Öcalan had striven for a peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue from the very beginning.
Referring to Abdullah Öcalan’s February 27 ‘call for peace and a democratic society’, Kuyucuoğlu said, “Our leader is the architect of peace and freedom.”
Kuyucuoğlu emphasized their belief in Öcalan regarding the solution, saying, “Whatever decision our leader makes, we are with him. The Turkish state is making a call and stating that whoever turns their direction towards Ankara and Damascus will win. We also say that whoever turns their direction towards Imrali, towards the Kurds, will win.”