TO OUR PEOPLES AND THE PUBLIC OPINION.

The international conspiracy against Kurdish People’s Leader, Abdullah Ocalan, staged on October 9, 1998 resulted in his captivity on Feb. 15 1999. Leader APO has been held under heavy solitary confinement as the sole inmate on the Island prison of Imrali for 19 consecutive years. On the eve of the 20th anniversary of his captivity, leader APO is being heavily isolated from the outside world. Those who staged the international conspiracy, out of fear from his thoughts and revolutionary stance, are still keeping him under heavy solitary confinement, due to the same fears. But his stance and reflections during the 19-years-long captivity in Imrali Prison have enlightened the way forward not only for the Kurds, but also for all humanity. On the 20th anniversary of the conspiracy, we respectfully commemorate the martyrs who spearheaded the revolutionary self-sacrificing campaign of “We Won’t Let You Black Our Sun Out”. Our struggle for freedom and democracy based on the self-sacrificing line of these martyrs will certainly lead to the Freedom of Ocalan, Freedom of Kurdistan and the democratization of the Middle East.

The reason behind the conspiracy against Leader APO, resulting in his captivity, is that he struggles for a democratic Middle East and a Free Kurdistan. Such a struggle would spell the end of imperialist hegemony and despotic rules as it would eliminate the forces collaborating with them in the Middle East. Realizing this fact, they plotted a conspiracy against him and held him captive. But they couldn’t imprison his freedom line of struggle, for no revolutionary stance and freedom passion can be contained inside four walls. In the course of the human history Erudites, dervishes, sabaoth, and saints have come out of the reclusions stronger; likewise, Leader APO, whose grandeur develops day by day in the Imrali prison, has turned into the leadership for a free and democratic life not only for the Kurds and the peoples of the Middle East but also for all humanity. Synthesizing the ideas and the struggles of humanity accumulated for over five millennials, Leader APO has created a paradigm based on freedom of women and democratic ecological society  and has turned into a hope for the future of humanity.
The Middle East which has given rise to humanity and sense of community is now facing a big chaos. The history of humanity has revealed that emancipatory messages and libertarian struggles have emerged at the times of chaos and from the lands suffering from chaos. The Middle East has experienced the deepest chaotic periods throughout history, but for the same reason, it has been a guiding spirit and a land from which the strongest emancipatory messages have emerged. The Middle East is now the hotbed of the Third World War and undergoing a deep crisis. Drawing on the five-millennia-long accumulation of ideas and cultures and the struggles for equity, justice, conscience, morale, democracy and freedom, the region has conveyed the emancipatory messages, hopes and struggle lines to all humanity.
The land which undergoes the most intense political, social, economic, and cultural crisis has, in practice, manifested the ways of emancipation, as it should be. The democratic and revolutionary values created by the long years of freedom and democracy struggle in Kurdistan are leading the democratic revolution of the Middle East. The Rojava Revolution, the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria, and the Kobani and Efrin resistances inspiring all humanity are the results of the reflections, stance and resistance of Leader APO in Imrali. Leader APO’s 20-years-long struggle in the Middle East, Syria, and Rojava has given way to the development of a paradigm which envisions freedom of women, democratic and ecological society. This paradigm has got the Middle East turn into the center for democratic civilization.
In his book, `Free Human’s defense`, 2003, Leader APO had written that the evolving Kurdish dynamics would take the Middle East towards democratic civilization. That argument is being put into practice now. Freedom of women is one of the most important driving force of the evolving Kurdish dynamics. On a land where women created the first nucleuses of human community, the line of women’s freedom has so spectacularly got on the stage of history that no reactionary, despotic, and hegemonic force can stand up against it. The democratic revolution developing on the line of women’s freedom will throw all the despots, one by one, to the waste bin of history.
Leader APO’s democratic-ecological paradigm developing on the line of women’s freedom underlies the real resistances going on now in Afrin, Rojava, Northern Syria, Syria, Turkey, North Kurdistan, Iran, Iraq, and all the Middle East. The evolving Kurdish dynamics are turning the wheels of these revolutions and they help making a new history not only for the Middle East, but also for all humanity.
Throughout his life, Leader APO has served the Kurdish people, the peoples of the Middle East, and all humanity. He has dedicated every moment of his life to the struggle for this end. As a free human kept captive inside four walls on the prison Island of Imrali, his heart beats for all humanity. We, as the Kurdish people and the Kurdish Freedom Movement, promise to fulfill our responsibility towards our Leader and our people by struggling for the freedom of our leader, the freedom of Kurdistan and the democratization of the Middle East.
On the 20th anniversary of the international conspiracy against Leader APO, we call our peoples and all democratic humanity, particularly the youth and the women, to rise up in solidarity with the Afrin resistance and take part in the struggle for the freedom of Ocalan, freedom of Kurdistan, freedom of all humanity, and the democratization of the Middle East.

Co-Presidency
KCK Executive Council
February 14, 2018