The global campaign launched on 10 October 2023 demanding the physical freedom of PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, who is held in isolation in İmralı Type F High Security Closed Prison, continues. Argentina is one of the countries where the campaign titled "Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, solution to the Kurdish issue" is being carried out. Julián Aguirre, director and coordinator of the International Department of the CTA Autónoma in Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, evaluated the campaign for the Mezopotamya Agency (MA).

 

'THEY ARE TRYING TO SUPPRESS AN IDEA'

 

We see the Kurdish struggle for freedom as their own struggle said Julián Aguirre and added: "What we see in long standing detainment of Öcalan is the Turkish state and its allies trying to suppress, not only a man, but the whole collective project, trying to suppress an idea, trying to suppress an enormous people's effort to overcome the current statusquo, and trying to create a whole different social experiment towards rather free society. Öcalan is not only the example of a fighter, he is also a thinker. He is also somebody who had shown a great creative and mindset to see, to be able to synthesize a whole collective effort to the declaration of justice society."

 

"We really value the price of the Kurdish movement as a whole. Not only their Leaders, even those anonymous people who maybe don't reach the main titles in the show halls, we really appreciate what they are doing everyday.  For us to see Öcalan free will be a great victory, not only for the Kurdish people, but for the whole peoples in the World, for all the people, both individually and collective, who works to see a better tomorrow and a better present," Julián Aguirre said.

 

RALLY

 

Julián Aguirre pointed out that the government in Turkey is trying to find solutions to the Kurdish issue according to its own conditions, and likened Turkey's attitude towards the Kurds to Israel's behaviour towards the Palestinian people. Julián Aguirre emphasised that the campaign for a solution and freedom would only be sufficient if Abdullah Öcalan's physical freedom was ensured. Julián Aguirre pointed out that the campaign aims to create solidarity and awareness and said: "In these first weeks before the year end, we trying to reach towards great numbers of influential individuals and organizations, mainly human rights organizations, academicians, social movements, legal organizations, to again put the demand for Öcalan’s freedom in the center, reaching towards first political meeting, first political rally, in the first half of December."

 

'HUGE VICTORY FOR THE PEOPLE'S WORLD'

 

Julián Aguirre continued: "We feel necessary to see a political and social solution for the Kurdish demand based on justice, freedom, democracy and the recognition of the Kurdish people as equal human beings. It's not only about human dignity, it's about peace. It's about being able as a human community to overcome the biases of the last two centuries of colonialism, oppression, exploitation, imperialism. To see that soon, it will be a huge victory, not only mainly for the Kurdish communities, but for the people's world. Maybe we don't live in the same geography, maybe we don't speak the same language, but we know what is to be a stranger in your own country. For us, it is natural to feel solidarity and empathy towards the Kurdish cause."

 

MA / Hivda Çelebi