Setting out from various European cities and traveling as far as the Kobanê border in Suruç, activists from the Peoples’ Caravan raised their voices both against the attacks on Rojava and against the isolation imposed on Abdullah Öcalan.
Internationalist activists Zozan and Magda, who took part in the caravan, spoke to ANF.
Zozan said: “We joined the People’s Caravan because of the situation in Rojava, in Kobane. For more than 25 days, people there were without electricity, without water and without food. They were really suffering under hard circumstances. Lots of people were left outside. Because of that, we wanted to break the siege of Kobane. We got under way from Germany, Italy, Serbia, Greece and then Turkey.”
Magda stated: “We arrived in Istanbul and then we went all the way to Suruç. We were very determined to go to the border, and to Kobane also. We wanted to participate in the history of the people joining the revolution and to defend what is happening and the people. We were determined to go even though the Turkish state and other states attacking there would not let us. Still, we came very close.”
After their return to Europe, Zozan and Magda joined the march held in Strasbourg under the slogan “Freedom for Öcalan, Status for Rojava.” Both internationalists spoke about the isolation imposed on Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan and stated that one of the reasons they participated in the actions in Strasbourg was the Kurdish leader’s freedom.
Zozan said: “Last year, Leader Öcalan made a call for a democratic and peaceful society with the Turkish state and all the peoples living there. The situation in Rojava is a concrete example of this. Syriacs, Alevis, Yazidis, Kurds, Arabs, and Druze live together. This is Leader Öcalan’s paradigm. That is why we demand his freedom. He has been held in isolation in Imrali for 27 years.”
Magda, for her part, stated that across a broad geography—from Kurdistan to Europe—people have mobilized around the will to live together. “This is also why we join the demonstration, to stand with those who came together in Europe to carry this will,” she added.
The components of the Peoples’ Caravan called for the strengthening of international solidarity against the siege imposed on Rojava and the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan.
Leave a Reply