Around 30 people gathered on Wednesday outside the Council of Europe’s Liaison Office on Rue Sainte Gertrude, in the Brussels commune of Etterbeek, to press for the release of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan.
The demonstration was organised by the Council of Kurdish Communities in Belgium, NavBel, as part of an international campaign to obtain the release of the politician, who has been held in virtual solitary confinement in Turkey since 1999.
On the eve of the European Summit to be held in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, protesters called on Europe’s institutions to “act for the release of the leader Abdullah Öcalan, and to find a political solution to the Kurdish question.”
“Since his abduction in 1999, Abdullah Öcalan has been held in a prison on the Turkish island of Imrali, in total isolation, in violation of Turkish and international laws prohibiting solitary confinement, isolation and torture,” NavBel denounced in a press release.
The last contacts with the Kurdish leader date back to a brief telephone call with his brother in March 2021, and a meeting with his lawyers in August 2019, the organisers of the rally claimed.
“Öcalan’s family and friends, his legal team, and millions of Kurds around the world fear for his safety,” they added.
Two other actions are planned by NavBel during the European Summit. They are two rallies - on 26 October at 11.30 a.m. in front of the European Commission and on 27 October at 3.30 p.m. in front of the European Parliament.
Despite the almost total isolation to which he is subjected by the Turkish authorities, Abdullah Öcalan remains a key figure in the Kurdish rebellion in Turkey, where the conflict between the state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has claimed more than 40,000 lives since 1984.
