For more than a week, a solidarity action has been taking place in German capital Berlin for the political prisoners in Turkey who are fighting against the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan and their devastating prison conditions with a hunger strike which has already left 55 days behind.

On the eighth day of the action at Alexanderplatz Square, the focus was on the beginning of Turkey's invasion of the northern Syrian canton of Afrin three years ago, in violation of international law. Speeches in German, Kurdish and Turkish denounced the Turkish expansionist policy and the German government’s support for the Erdogan regime.

The rally began with a minute of silence for those who died in the liberation struggle. Nurê Alkış gave a speech for the umbrella organization of the Yazidi women's movement and remembered women such as Avesta Xabûr, who died in the resistance in Afrin.

PYD representative Renas Efrîn pointed out that members of different ethnic groups and faith communities had lived together peacefully in Afrin for thousands of years before the Turkish occupation. Menderes Canberg, spokesman for the Kurdish association FED-KURD, called on the EU states to commit themselves to respecting their own laws: "The law is being violated in the prisons in Turkey and Kurdistan. Do not be complicit in these crimes!"

Former HDP deputy Nursel Aydoğan, who now lives in exile in Europe due to political persecution in Turkey, said in a speech, "A hunger strike has been going on for 55 days in prisons across Turkey. Abdullah Öcalan last had the opportunity to speak with his lawyers a year and a half ago."

Regarding the current situation in Afrin, Aydoğan said, "The occupation in Afrin is taking on ever more profound features. Ninety-five percent of the population were Kurds. The occupiers are trying to eradicate the culture of Afrin. Turkish is spoken in Afrin today, and classes are held in Turkish. A culture and a people are meant to be assimilated."