Federico Venturini is a research associate at the University of Udine (Italy). His current research focuses on river contracts, participatory processes and Zero Waste. He is a co-author with Dr Thomas Jeffrey Miley of the book “Your freedom and mine – Abdullah Öcalan and the Kurdish Question in Erdoğan’s Turkey” published by Black Rose Books.

Prof. Venturini spoke to journalist Erem Kansoy about the Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan Campaign. Political solution to the Kurdish Question.

Venturini said: “It is important to break the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan on Imrali Island for different reasons. Firstly, he’s a 75-year-old person, and we know there are some health concerns, so we need to know what’s going on there and how his health is. So there is a humanitarian issue, but it is also important to acknowledge the role of Abdullah Öcalan as a leader of the Kurdish population. He is someone important in a time of crisis in order to solve the Kurdish question. In addition, there is also the role of Abdullah Öcalan as a political thinker. He’s proposing the new idea of democratic confederalism.”

Prof. Venturini added: “Breaking the isolation is important to hear Öcalan’s voice as he can help to solve the current crisis, in Turkey as well as in the Middle East. It is very important to develop the campaign Freedom for Öcalan, a political solution to the Kurdish question. I support this campaign, salute the Nobel Prize winners who supported it, and I call on the Committee for the Prevention of Torture and the European Court of Human Rights to make a public statement in order to break the isolation and allow Öcalan to play his role in the solution to the Kurdish question.”