The International Initiative for Freedom for Öcalan and Peace in Kurdistan are organising an extraordinary action to mark the occasion of the upcoming ’12 November,’ which marks the 23th year of the jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan’s arrival in Italy before he was arrested.
A cruise ship, called the ‘Freedom Ship,’ today sets sail from Lavrio, Greece to Naples, Italy to advocate for the release of Abdullah Öcalan, who has been jailed in a high security prison on the island of Imralı in Turkey since 1999.
Academics, politicians, artists, writers, peace activists, representatives of the women’s movement and activists from Germany, France, Switzerland, Brazil, Spain, Sweden, Greece, Italy and the UK are on board the Freedom Ship.
After a three-night cruise, the Freedom Ship will be welcomed in Italy, where a rally will be organised on 12 November.
The Freedom Ship activists, who arrived in Greece in groups, began their programme on Monday, holding meetings with the representatives of various political parties in Greece. The Freedom Ship delegation visited the headquarters of the main opposition parties SYRIZA (the Coalition of the Radical Left), LAE (Popular Unity) and NAR (the New Left Current).
“As a delegation from various parts of the world and Europe, as well as from Turkey and Kurdistan, we are here in Greece. Those who come together here unite around a common demand that the ongoing war against the Kurds shall be ended and Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan shall be released in this regard, because we know that the two are related,” Ertuğrul Kürkçü, the honorary chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said in a meeting in Athens, explaining the demands of the Freedom Ship activists.
