The mayor of the Italian municipality of Montopoli has taken commitment to award honorary citizenship to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan. His announcement comes after the open letter of 69 Nobel Prize laureates calling for the freedom of the PKK leader. With the awarding of the citizenship, the municipality wants to send a political message supporting the need for the freedom of Öcalan.
The announcement comes just some days after a conference for Öcalan’s freedom was held in a room of the Italian Parliament. The conference was organised in connection with the international campaign ‘Freedom for Öcalan, a Political Solution to the Kurdish question’ and saw the participation of MPs Marco Grimaldi, Arturo Scotto and Marcello Dell’Osso. The MPs drew attention to the positive role that Öcalan can have in the peace process in Turkey and in the Middle East, especially in a period of escalating tension and violence in the region and on the Kurdish people.
Montopoli is not the first municipality in Italy to offer its citizenship to Öcalan. Several others, including Palermo, Napoli, Palagonia, Reggio Emilia, Riace, Martano, Pinerolo, Castel de Giudice, Castel Bottaccio, Berceto, Cinquefrondi, Fossalto and Rende have granted honorary citizenship to Öcalan. Among the reasons for awarding Öcalan, the paradigm of Democratic Confederalism drawn by the PKK leader while he was detained in İmralı prison, was mentioned.
