YEREVAN (Armenpress) — The Kurdish community of Armenia rallied outside the UN office in Yerevan on February 29, calling on international bodies to demand Turkish authorities to allow the lawyers of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan to visit him in prison
“On February 27 the Turkish authorities said that a fire erupted on the island of Imrali, where the leader of the Kurdish people Abdullah Öcalan is imprisoned for 21 years. They [Turkish authorities] did not give other details and did not convey information about the health and condition of our leader. The entire Kurdish people around the world have stood up. We are questioning the Turkish authorities’ false, wicked and brute policy because in the past they also made statements claiming Ocalan was sick, or there was an earthquake on the island, and when we rose up it turned out these statements were false. Now we doubt whether or not something has happened to our leader,” said Knyaz Hasanov, the head of the Kurdish community of Armenia and Member of Parliament from the ruling My Step faction.
Hasanov emphasized that they want to tell the world that they are demanding from the Turkish authorities to allow Ocalan’s lawyers and family to visit him and see his condition.
Kurds living in Turkey itself, in Syria, Iran, Iraq and across Europe are also making the same demands.
The demonstrators said they won’t halt the rallies, and chanted “Long live Ocalan”, “Long live our leader,” “Long live our leader Apo” – Apo is short for both Abdullah and “uncle” in Kurdish.
