Freedom for Ocalan Campaign

Weekly vigils in Trafalgar Square, next vigil this Wednesday 12 September 2012, 1-2pm.

The Freedom for Ocalan Initiative Committee is holding weekly vigils each Wednesday at 1pm - 2pm in Trafalgar Square. The vigils have been called as part of the Freedom for Ocalan Campaign, demanding the release of Kurdish leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

Next vigil: This Wednesday, 19 September 2012, at 1pm - 2pm


FREEDOM FOR OCALAN – STATUS FOR KURDISTAN

Dear friends and International media


“Freedom for Ocalan Initiative Committee” in Britain will be carrying out a demonstration every Wednesday at 1pm in Trafalgar Square to highlight the more than one year of severe isolation and demand the freedom of Kurdish leader Mr. Abdullah Ocalan.

The harsh implementations, including mistreatment, discrimination and criminalisation, are carried out by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of the Turkish government led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan has further increased against the Kurdish people, human rights activists, intellectuals, columnists, socialists, religious and other ethnic minorities, environmentalist, women, youth, media and all those who oppose the system. In addition, severe isolation of the Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan and the rejection of cease-fire by Erdogan displaced the on-going peace process and have upheaved the war between Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Turkish state to a new dimension, which has resulted in the deaths of several hundred lives.

“Freedom for Ocalan Initiative Committee” in Britain is calling out to Britain and World public opinion for the recognition of Ocalan’s freedom and a status for Kurdistan. There have been somewhat similar cases from around the world, where such people and leaders, who were subjected to systematic state oppression and tyranny, did finally resolved peacefully. The case of South African leader, Nelson Mandela, is a similar one where he was kept a political prisoner for years ended peacefully through dialogue and democratic means. Later on in the process he became the leader of the country and helped to build a better nation. The situation of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma is another example, where after years of imprisonment, resolved through democratic means, making her a prominent politician of the country. Similarly, the Kurdish leader Mr. Ocalan is kept in solitary confinement in the Imrali Island since 1999. This 13-year continuous solitary confinement and resolution of this issue can only be resolved by following the above mentioned examples; through peaceful negotiations and democratic channels.

For the following reasons, we reject the silence of the Western governments and their support of such tyrannical policies and dirty war in Kurdistan-Turkey:

Attempts to totally eradicate an ethnic group
For more than 1 year Mr. Ocalan has been withheld from seeing and speaking to his family and lawyers
The chemical weapons used against Kurdish people and Freedom fighters (Guerrillas)
The illegal marketing of Freedom Fighter’s organs and the disfiguration of Guerrillas’ dead bodies
For the massacre of 34 civilians, which included 17 children at Roboski, by Turkish f-16 warplanes to be unnoticed by the international public opinion, is as terrifying as the massacre itself.
Hostage taking and arrests of thousands of political representatives, Kurdish civilians, mayors, party members, journalists and Mr. Öcalan's lawyers by the state under the “KCK case”
Deaths of hundreds of children by the police bullets and army mines

So far, the Council of Europe, British Parliament, European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, European Court of Human Rights, European War Crimes Court and the United Kingdom remain completely silent and are not carrying out the “just” duty they claim to follow.

Therefore, we are a starting a petition under the “Freedom for Ocalan and Status for Kurdistan” campaign and we will be supporting this by consistently performing a mass sit-in protest. We are calling out to those who believe in equality and freedom of all people to be aware of this inhumanity.

‘Yesterday Mandela - Today Ocalan’ ‘Freedom for Ocalan - Status for Kurdistan’

Britain Freedom for Ocalan Initiative Committee

For further information contact: fedbir@gmail.com

Freedom for Ocalan Initiative Committee
Status for Kurdistan