Tag: Ocalan

Peace in Kurdistan sends its solidarity greetings to Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdish people, on the occasion of his 69th birthday on 4 April 2018.

Abdullah Ocalan has spent too many of his birthdays in confinement, so that his birthday has become just another day like all others: a day that is not his own, whose freedom has been stolen from him.

Normally a birthday is a time to see friends and family. it is a time to share with all those who are closest to you, to celebrate, reminisce and look to the future. It is an occasion for people to come together, for you to learn how much you are respected, appreciated and loved. Continue reading “SOLIDARITY GREETINGS TO ABDULLH OCALAN” →

FREEDOM FOR OCALAN – PEACE IN KURDISTAN
The 15 February 2018 marks another year since Abdullah Ocalan lost his freedom. It is now 19 years since Turkey abducted and detained the Kurdish leader.
Over the intervening years Ocalan has become a living legend; his status and influence have grown considerably despite his imprisonment and isolation.
Continue reading “Statement to mark the 19th Anniversary of Abdullah Ocalan’s abduction” →

Statement, 9 October 2016

The 9th October marks the 18th anniversary of the expulsion of Abdullah Ocalan from Syria where he had remained for the best part of twenty years.

In 1998 Turkey was sabre rattling and openly threatening Syria to remove Ocalan and renounce its support for the PKK.  Tremendous political pressures were exerted on Damascus, which was beset by severe economic strains and the weakening of its relations with its traditional global ally, Russia, itself was deeply damaged politically and embroiled in a destabilising financial crisis. Despite all the pressures, Damascus did not hand Ocalan over to Turkey, but was forced to insist that he left the country. Ocalan fled to several countries including Russia, Italy and Greece in his ultimately unsuccessful search for political asylum. His fate was all played out in the full attention of the international media until in February 1999 he was eventually apprehended in Nairobi by an intelligence operation which saw Turkish state security forces co-operating with the CIA and other security agencies. Continue reading “The anniversary of Abdullah Ocalan’s expulsion from Syria – a stain on the world’s treatment of the Kurds?” →

Introduction

Respect for Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdish Freedom Movement, “chained to the rock of Imrali,” a symbol of resistance, of fortitude and resilience, a responsible leader, a prophet, a man with a powerful political vision.

A vision that has inspired the revolutionaries in Rojava in Syria, and that fuels the Kurdish resistance to Erdogan’s tyranny in the southeast of Turkey (and beyond).

The heroic defence of Kobane caught the world’s attention, the movement’s will to struggle, its ability to mobilize the people for collective self-defence, to sacrifice and to die for a cause, and not just for any cause, for a good cause: the project of “democratic confederalism,” a project which represents the only alternative to the negative dialectic of tyranny and chaos currently tearing the Middle East apart, or, in Ocalan’s terms, the only alternative to “hierarchical and dominated civilization.” Continue reading “Review of Abdullah Ocalan’s Manifesto for a Democratic Civilization: Dr. Donald H. Matthews Dr. Thomas Jeffrey Miley, University of Cambridge” →

Building solidarity with the Kurdish struggle for democracy, equality and freedom TUC 2016 Fringe Meeting Speakers Simon Dubbins – Unite Director of International , Christine Blower – International Secretary of NUT,  Elif Sarican – Kurdish Students Union,  Huseyin Olan – Co-Mayor of Bitlis in South-East Turkey. In Chair – Bert Schouwenburg GMB International Officer.

Open leaflet here: jn7587-a4-tuc-kurdish-struggle-leaflet

Nearly 300 people rallied in London on Sunday 14th July to protest the continued incarceration of Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned Kurdish leader. Steve Sweeney, UNITE media branch and member of the Imrali peace delegation  and Father Ryan, Chair of Westminster Justice and Peace Commission and delegation member, were among the speakers who emphasised the increasingly precarious situation for Ocalan as the Turkish state spirals out of control following the coup attempt on 15th July. Continue reading “Rally for Freedom for Ocalan” →