The Co-Presidency of the KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council released a statement on the birthday of Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan on April 4.
The statement on Friday includes the following:
“We are approaching April 4th, which marks the 77th birthday of Rêber Apo [Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan], and it is a special birthday, as our people view it as the anniversary of their own rebirth and celebrate it every year with great excitement and gratitude. As annually, our people, pioneered by the women, and the youth are finalizing their preparations for April 4. We, too, celebrate this meaningful day with them and once again express our gratitude to Rêber Apo.
Rêber Apo has created great values for all peoples and humanity, particularly the Kurdish people and women, and has inscribed his name in the noble history of humanity through these values. He has raised the Kurdish people—whose existence was denied and who were subjected to genocide—back to their feet, endowing them with consciousness, spirit, and identity, and transforming them into a people whose existence cannot be denied any longer.
This, of course, was achieved through a great struggle, labor, and effort. Rêber Apo created these results by working, laboring, creating, and struggling under the most difficult conditions and in an environment devoid of resources. He has dedicated every minute of his entire life to this cause. Even under the 27-year-long conditions of imprisonment on Imrali, he adhered to the same approach. Through this, he has thwarted the greatest conspiracy in history and the harshest imprisonment imposed upon him. Through the profound development he achieved in history, society, and thought, he succeeded in cultivating the stance of a free human being even under the harshest conditions of imprisonment in history. He has developed a new thought and paradigm that will liberate humanity. The Kurdish people have experienced a new enlightenment through the new ideology and paradigm developed by Rêber Apo. Through this enlightenment in consciousness and ideology, the Kurdish people have become a people respected worldwide, drawing strength from their dynamism and whose struggle serves as an example. This is undoubtedly the most honorable and esteemed position for a people. For this reason, the Kurdish people view Rêber Apo as their own leader, regard his existence and freedom as their own, and hold him in great affection.
Particularly the women feel a deep passion, love, and devotion for Rêber Apo’s struggle because he has done more for women than all other leaders in history have done. Rêber Apo has rejected the existing patriarchal order and has adopted women’s freedom as a fundamental principle of life. He has placed before men the task of fundamentally re-examining themselves, questioning their own positions, and undergoing profound transformation and change based on women’s freedom. For this reason, women see Rêber Apo as very close to them and regard his freedom as their own.
Rêber Apo has rendered a great service to all peoples and humanity through the democratic, ecological, and women’s liberation paradigm he developed. He has criticized nationalism, sexism, tribalism, and sectarianism and has made the coexistence of peoples in equality his guiding principle. He has regarded and adopted internationalism as the most fundamental principle. By developing the concepts of democratic modernity and the democratic nation in opposition to the state and power mentality, he has found a solution to humanity’s millennia-long quest for a democratic and free life.
Today, during a period in which the Third World War was intensifying, Rêber Apo put forward the ‘Call for Peace and Democratic Society,’ offering yet another new and alternative solution model for humanity. With this historic call and the new manifesto he developed, he has paved the way for peoples to live in peace and coexistence through a democratic integration approach, in opposition to the war-based policies of hegemonic powers that pit peoples against one another. This historic call developed by Rêber Apo has been embraced by the peoples and revolutionary democratic forces, particularly the Kurdish people and women. It is abundantly clear that the success of this process will bring great benefits to the Kurdish people, women, the peoples, and humanity.
Once again, we celebrate April 4th, the birthday of Rêber Apo, which holds great significance for our people, women, the peoples, and humanity, and we call on everyone to celebrate April 4th with enthusiasm by planting trees, as Rêber Apo has proposed.”
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