The Democratic Society Movement (TEV-DEM) made a written statement on the occasion of the 26th anniversary of the 9 October Conspiracy against Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan. The statement emphasised that after the international conspiracy that started on 9 October 1998 and the abduction of Abdullah Öcalan on 15 February 1999 and his handover to Turkey, the crises in the Middle East and Kurdistan deepened.

“At a time when the Middle East is in crisis and the people of the region as well as humanity are facing crisis and losses, the physical freedom of Leader Abdullah Öcalan is more important than ever. The key to solution is in İmralı,” the statement on Monday said.

The statement said that peace and stability in the region is not possible without the physical freedom of the Öcalan.

“Leader Öcalan, who has been kept under isolation, torture and oppression by the Turkish state in İmralı for more than 25 years, has been struggling not only for the Kurdish people, but also for the peoples of the Middle East and the world. His ideas and philosophy have become the hope of peoples.

The existence of a resistance fighter for peace and humanity within the four walls of Imrali, and the fact that murderers and dictators who slaughter peoples talk about equality and democracy is a source of shame for both humanity and human rights institutions.

As TEV-DEM, we call on our people, public opinion, lawyers, intellectuals, civil society organisations and democrats all around the world to put an end to this cruel theatre. For freedom, equality and democracy, we call on them to break the isolation of the Leader and guarantee his physical freedom.”