People of Manbij took to the streets on Wednesday to demand freedom for Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan, who is held in total isolation in Imrali Island Prison in the Sea of Marmara and has not been heard from for 35 months.

The march was attended by members of the Democratic Civil Administration of Manbij Canton and its affiliated organizations, as well as members of the Zenubiya Women’s Community Council, the Syrian Women’s Council, the Council of Martyrs’ Families, representatives of political parties and opinion leaders of the region.

Speaking after the demonstration after the march, Raba Bekro, Co-Chair of the Work Office of the Eastern Region Assembly, said: “We have come together because we adopt the freedom ideas of Leader Abdullah Öcalan, who devoted himself to the freedom of the peoples. Our only demand is the physical freedom of Leader Abdullah Öcalan.”

Îsmaîl Qetwan, member of the Manbij Canton Civil Society Organization, said, “We demand the physical freedom of Leader Abdullah Öcalan, who is our main source of faith for justice, rights and freedom. Since he sacrificed his life for a just cause, for the oppressed peoples, he deserves a free life away from the dungeons of oppression and persecution.”

Qetwan emphasized the need to revolt against the oppression and tyranny of the occupying Turkish state and to resist heroically for a free future and unity.

Member of the Syrian Initiative for the Freedom of Leader Abdullah Öcalan, Husam Al-Shewax, said: “The cause of Leader Abdullah Öcalan is not only the cause of one people, but the cause of all peoples and humanity living under the umbrella of the Democratic Nation.”