Global Days of Events from 15th to 22nd June 2024
A call from the Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan Campaign Committee
Abdullah Öcalan has been in solitary confinement in Turkey for over 25 years and has been cut off from the outside world. The last time he was able to meet his lawyers was in August 2019. Since March 2021, all contact has been prevented and there are serious concerns about his well-being. It is impossible to rely on the established institutions such as the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights. Despite numerous requests and available information, they did not intervene against the unlawful practice of isolation, which is considered torture.
Öcalan’s writings are inspiring intellectuals, free thinkers, scientists, workers, activists, artists, trade unionists, social movements, politicians and entire societies. Öcalan left Syria 25 years ago as a Kurdish leader in the wake of an international conspiracy and returned years later as a pioneer of a free, multi-ethnic, multi-religious and grassroots democratic society. Since the so-called Arab Spring, an autonomous, self-governing social system based on Öcalan’s ideas of women liberation, ecology and radical democracy has been emerging in northern and eastern Syria. With the philosophy developed by Öcalan, we are regaining hope in the possibility of a democratic social system. In his prison cell he formulated the words “Jin, Jiyan, Azadî”: the slogan of the women’s liberation struggle in the 21st century and a compass for all women who rebel and fight.
Öcalan helped the Kurdish freedom movement’s renewal by providing a path forward with the farthest reaching definition of democracy that the world has ever seen. His writings are a breath-taking research into life without the state and a vision of a democratic-ecological society offering a fresh perspective on the quest for a new socialism. Öcalan’s calls for democratic forms of social organization deserve the careful attention of anyone interested in constructive social thought or rebuilding society along feminist and ecological lines.
As the Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan Campaign Committee we extend the call to join the ‘Dialogue with Öcalan’ global days of events against the isolation in Imrali and to spread his ideas. We call intellectuals, free thinkers, scientists, workers, activists, artists, trade unionists, social movements, politicians to carry out original forms of actions.
Organize your events in dialogue with Öcalan’s ideas!
