FREEDOM FOR ÖCALAN

ELA joins the global campaign to demand a political solution to the Kurdish question

Oct 09, 2024

One year after the launch of the campaign `Freedom for Öcalan: a political solution to the Kurdish question´, of which ELA is a part, the union has held a rally in Zumarraga (Gipuzkoa) to demand, once again, freedom for Abdullah Öcalan and to demand a fair and democratic political solution to the Kurdish question in Turkey. Thus, ELA joins the many mobilisations and protests that are taking place around the world these days within the framework of the campaign.

Since his kidnapping in 1999, Abdullah Öcalan has been held incommunicado on a Turkish prison island, in a state of total and absolute isolation, without contact with the outside world for years, in violation of Turkish and international laws against solitary confinement, incommunicado detention and torture.

Öcalan's rights have been systematically violated since he was captured, and although the Turkish authorities are directly responsible, without international complicity this situation could hardly be maintained.

Öcalan's ideas on the coexistence of peoples and beliefs, on women's freedom and democracy can help in the search for a solution to the Kurdish question in Turkey and put an end to a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, displaced millions of people and destabilized the entire Middle East for more than 40 years.

At this critical moment, ELA condemns the "illegal and inhuman" isolation of Abdullah Öcalan and calls, together with other trade union, political and social organizations worldwide, for the freedom of Öcalan and a political solution to the Kurdish question.