The Belgian Kurdish community demonstrated on Sunday afternoon in Brussels central station for the release of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan and Kurdish rights.
“Down with the fascist regime in Turkey,” chanted the demonstrators, who numbered just over a hundred, carrying flags printed with the portrait of Abdullah Öcalan.
Öcalan, formerly the head of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), was kidnapped in Kenya by Turkish secret service agents 25 years ago. He was condemned to death in Turkey, a sentence subsequently reduced to life imprisonment.
Öcalan is currently detained in the Imrali island prison, located in the Sea of Marmara. During several years a ban on lawyer visits has been applied and is still in force. During most of the hours he is held in solitary confinement. Attempts in recent years to improve the detention conditions in Imrali have failed.
He played a key role in the failed 2013 and 2015 peace negotiations between the Turkish state and the PKK. The demonstrators also urged for a political resolution to the Kurdish issue, a conflict that has resulted in over 40,000 deaths since 1984.
Those gathering highlighted the desperate need for a peaceful solution, insisting that the Kurdish plight should not be forgotten amidst the world’s other significant conflicts.
The protestors also waved a red flag on the unlawful imprisonment of thousands of political dissenters, particularly Kurdish, incarcerated in prisons across President Erdogan’s regime.
