Whilst many unions, civil society organisations as well as individuals including academics, politicians and artists have joined the ‘Freedom for Öcalan” campaign demanding freedom for the jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan, Italian city of Rende (Cosenza) awarded Öcalan with “honorary citizenship”.
The Kurdish leader, Abdullah Öcalan has now been accepted as the honourary citizen of the Italian cities Palermo, Napoli, Palagonia, Reggio Emilia, Riace, Martano, Pinerolo, Castel de Giudice, Castel Bottaccio, Berceto, Cinquefrondi and Fossalto.
Turkish ambassador to Rome Murat Salim Esenli wrote a letter to Rence Mayor Marcelli Manna with regard to the honorary citizenship of Abdulah Öcalan.
“Following the letter received from the Turkish ambassador, Mr Esenli, we would like to point out that there is no desire to support or even less to legitimise terrorism with regard to the granting of honorary citizenship to the leader Abdullah Öcalan by the Municipal Council of the city of Rende,” said Manna on a Facebook post, where he shared the Turkish ambassador’s letter and his reply.
“Öcalan has always opted for the constant and even unilateral search for a peaceful solution to the conflict.”
Italian Mayor emphasised that by awarding honourary citizenship to Öcalan, they wanted to “highlight the issue of the Kurdish people’s self-determination process, an issue that has been historically well known to us since the Second World War.”
“Öcalan has always opted for the constant and even unilateral search for a peaceful solution to the conflict,” Manna said. “For twenty-two years, he has been paying for his strenuous struggle to defend the rights of his people with hard imprisonment, which for sixteen years has become ‘solitary confinement torture’ recognised as a violation of international law as well as Turkish law itself. ”
Manna urged the Turkish ambassador to discuss the issue in an open meeting.
Medya News shares the full reply of Italian Mayor to the Turkish ambassador’s letter as follows:
“Following the letter received from the Turkish ambassador, Mr Esenli, we would like to point out that there is no desire to support or even less to legitimise terrorism with regard to the granting of honourary citizenship to the leader Abdullah Öcalan by the Municipal Council of the city of Rende.
The leader of the Kurdish people, in fact, does not appear in any of the official lists with this designation.
Öcalan has always opted for the constant and even unilateral search for a peaceful solution to the conflict. For twenty-two years, he has been paying for his strenuous struggle to defend the rights of his people with hard imprisonment, which for sixteen years has become ‘solitary confinement torture’ recognised as a violation of international law as well as Turkish law itself.
It is certainly no coincidence that the Western community gives the leader credit for the involvement of the Kurdish militias, from 2013 to the present, in the front line of the war against ISIS, as the only ground force within the international coalition led by the United States.
By awarding honorary citizenship to Öcalan, we wanted to highlight the issue of the Kurdish people’s self-determination process, an issue that has been historically well known to us since the Second World War and that our country has faced and overcome thanks to the partisan struggles and the achievement of the democratic principles contained in our constitutional charter.
Civil rights, as well as those of the individual and of ethnic minorities, must be universally recognised and guaranteed in a democratic, pluralist, ecological, feminist and liberal society.
We are used to discussing and not imposing the principles of gender equality and respect for differences.
We are now in the third millennium, which is the era of rights not only for Italy but also for all other countries in the world.
Rende is and will always be on the side of the oppressed, protecting human rights and equality between peoples.”
