The Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) Executive Council Co-Chair Cemil Bayık, in an interview with Fırat News Agency (ANF), appealed to people to campaign for the release and freedom of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan, and not just for an improvement in the isolation conditions that have been imposed upon him in prison.
Bayık asked all Kurdish people, especially the youth and women, as well as all forces of democracy to engage in this initiative which would result in freedom for all.
In his interview, Bayık stated that demands that were limited only to ending Öcalan’s prison conditions of “isolation at the current stage are not proper for the character of the current struggle. If we want to overthrow fascism, realise democracy and solve the Kurdish problem, it is not enough to only demand that isolation should be lifted”.
Bayık asserted that ”the prison resistance, our mothers with white scarves, the Kurdish people and the forces of democracy have revealed that isolation is an illegitimate system. The isolation conditions cannot be justified by the Turkish state. The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) defined the practices in İmralı Prison as a torture system. In this respect, demanding an end to isolation must no longer be the focus of the struggle. It is time to struggle for leader Öcalan’s freedom”.
He added: “If there is to be a struggle, it must also be a struggle that ensures the freedom and democratization of the Kurdish people. I would like to emphasize once again that we will continue this struggle until we ensure the freedom of leader Öcalan, that is, the freedom of the Kurdish people. I call upon everyone, everywhere, to support this struggle”.
