The U.S. Launch of the 'Freedom for Ocalan' Campaign
In recent days Turkey has carried out a widespread bombing campaign against North and East Syria, targeting civilian infrastructure such as energy plants, food and water facilities, and hospitals, resulting in the deaths of civilians and widespread disruption of vital services. Kurds (and the region’s other diverse peoples) continue to pay a heavy price for Turkey’s refusal to negotiate an end to its war on the Kurdish freedom movement. It is in this context that we call for the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan, to facilitate a just and peaceful settlement to this conflict once and for all.
_________________________
The international 'Freedom for Öcalan, A Political Solution for the Kurdish Question’ Campaign unites millions of Kurds worldwide with social movements, political parties, municipalities, unions, activists, and intellectuals around a shared goal: ending Turkey’s ongoing colonization and oppression of Kurds by enabling Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan’s participation in a renewed dialogue for a just peace.
Abdullah Öcalan is a Kurdish political leader seen by millions of Kurds globally as their political representative. In February 1999, he was abducted in a U.S-backed international intelligence operation and sent to Turkey. He has been in an island prison ever since, barred from all contact with the outside world for years at a time. He has been subjected to torture and other cruel and degrading treatment.
Despite this, the movement Öcalan built and the people inspired by it are at the forefront of Kurdish struggles for self-determination and women’s liberation, as well as direct democracy for the multi-ethnic, multi-religious societies in the Middle East. His theories have inspired movements fighting to end all forms of oppression and exploitation across the globe.
The campaign is international in part because the war on Kurdish self-determination is international. Kurdistan is occupied by not one, but four states: Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. It was European powers, mainly Britain and France, who created these divisions a century ago by imposing nation-states and colonial borders on Anatolia and Mesopotamia. Turkey’s ability to wage war on Kurds across the region is the result of decades of unconditional support from NATO and the United States: Washington is Turkey’s primary arms supplier; U.S.-trained Turkish military personnel have been implicated in countless war crimes and a right-wing military coup; and U.S. political and legal designations criminalize Kurdish politics worldwide.
It is also international because Öcalan’s solutions are international. His framework for a political solution to the Kurdish question could end a century of occupation, war, and political repression in Turkey, that region of the Middle East, and beyond. His critique of capitalist modernity and his theories of democratic confederalism and women’s liberation can offer a model for people everywhere seeking alternatives to the great crises of our time—from capitalism to climate change to the rise of far-right autocrats taking advantage of growing disillusionment with neoliberalism.
When Öcalan is free to participate in a political process to end Turkey’s war on Kurds, the result will be greater freedom and peace for all of us. Unfortunately, the far-right leadership in Turkey knows this and greatly fears this scenario—and so, with the support of the international community, it has kept Öcalan in isolation for nearly three years in order to maintain its hold on power and prolong its endless wars.
In Öcalan’s last conversation with his lawyers, which occurred in 2019, he said that he could end the war in the region of Kurdistan in a week if given the chance—and that he had developed his ideas for a political solution even further since the Turkish government last abandoned peace talks in 2015. Since 2015 Turkey has used its air power to bomb the peaceful region of North-East Syria, targeting women's rights defenders, minority groups, civilians and civilian infrastructure to this day. Its transborder attacks into Iraqi Kurdistan and crackdown on dissent at home and abroad makes a political solution urgent now more than ever.
We are also more concerned about Öcalan’s security and well-being than ever before. Isolation is internationally recognized as a form of torture. For this form of torture to go on for three years is extremely dangerous. We do not know anything about Öcalan’s fate beyond the fact that he has recently received ‘disciplinary measures’ to block meetings on false pretenses and has allegedly been sent death threats.
This situation is unsustainable. For this reason, we make the following demand:
Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan must be allowed to meet with his lawyers and family and, ultimately, freed under conditions that allow him to play a role in finding a just and democratic political solution to Turkey's war on Kurds.
