The campaign "Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, democratic solution to the Kurdish issue" was launched on 10 October 2023 in 74 centres around the world against the isolation of PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan and the solution to the Kurdish issue. The campaign continues in many countries. The "Committee for Solidarity with Kurdistan" established in Buenos Aires, Argentina, continues its campaign activities uninterruptedly. Claudia Korol, a member of the "Committee for Solidarity with Kurdistan" and the multinational network of feminist collectives "Feministas de Abya Yala", one of the coordinators of the campaign involving civil society, labour, women's organisations and activists, evaluated the campaign in the country to Mezopotamya Agency (MA).

 

'ÖCALAN'S FREEDOM IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR PEACE'

 

Claudia Korol stated that Abdullah Öcalan's long years of isolation is inhuman and a real torture. Claudia Korol stated that Öcalan is a political leader who can bring peace in the Middle East and therefore he is a risk for the international powers that continue the war in the Middle East. 

 

Claudia Korol pointed to the "peaceful" message given by Öcalan in his meeting with his nephew Ömer Öcalan and said: "The message he has given through his nephew Ömer Öcalan confirms Abdullah Öcalan's willingness and undoubted ability to bring the Kurdish conflict to a legal and political arena. This is evidenced by the fact that he has used the minimal possibilities of communication to send a message of few words, in which he once again insists on the need for a political solution in Kurdistan and beyond its borders. Just as Nelson Mandela's freedom was once fundamental in order to advance the end of Apartheid, not only in South Africa but also in the world, today Öcalan's freedom is the opportunity that we, the peoples, have to achieve peace in the Middle East, at a time when capitalism, patriarchy and imperialism are seeking to install the logic of the ‘logic of the world’ in Kurdistan, imperialism seek to install the logic of war, a different path is imposed, based on the construction of Democratic Confederalism, on local, plurinational, pluricultural democracy, with the perspective of the revolution of women, who are resolutely lovers of peace and the creation of justice and freedom."

 

'THE WAY AMPLIFY JIN JIYAN AZADI'

 

Claudia Korol stated that all over Argentina and the Americas they are organising demonstrations for justice for the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan, for political reparations and to contribute to the democratic solution of the Kurdish question, "As feminists, fighting for Öcalan's freedom is a way to defend the Kurdish women's revolution, and to amplify the Jin Jiyan Azadi. Öcalan's freedom is a strategic step so that peace policies do not become a compendium of good wishes, but are part of a logic aimed at defending the Kurdish women's revolution, which is our revolution, the revolution of our time, and the one that most contributes to thinking feminisms not only as a programme of reform and defence of women's rights, but as a revolutionary project to transform the whole of life."

 

'WHAT THEY ARE LOOKING NOT PEACE BUT THE SURRENDER OF THE KURDS'

 

Claudia Korol criticised the discussions on the Kurdish question on the one hand and the trustee appointments and operations on the other. "But I can see the double discourse in which, on the one hand, there is talk of moving towards a solution to the conflict with the Kurdish people, which necessarily implies Öcalan's freedom, but at the same time, the territories in which pro-Kurdish parties have political, social, cultural or military strength and are developing a model of local democracies that allow for multi-national coexistence, with cultural and religious diversity, and equal representation of women and minorities, are being attacked as never before. This example is dangerous, which is why Erdogan's authoritarian government is threatening the municipalities governed by the DEM and repressing their representatives. What they are looking for is not to secure peace, but the total surrender of the Kurdish movement as a sign of the ‘pacification’ of the Middle East," Claudia Korol said.

 

'AS THE KURDISH WOMEN'S MOVEMENT TEACHES TO US...'

 

Stating that this dual behaviour is characteristic of right-wing leaders around the world, Claudia Korol continued her words as follows: "In order to advance in the transformation, in the revolutions we are lacking, it is not enough to denounce the double standards and the distance between the words and actions of the right and the ultra-right. It is necessary, as the Kurdistan Women's Movement teaches us, to create territories of life and freedom, autonomous, where different ways of living well are born and grow, based on the coexistence of different cultures, with respect for democracy created from below. Sooner or later, this will mean the end of the authoritarian regime in Turkey, and a path that ensures peace and freedom for all the peoples of the Middle East, on which we, the peoples of the world, can look to."

 

MA / Hîvda Çelebi