Nora Cortinas, a mother of Plaza de Mayo and Claudia Korol, an Argentinean feminist activist shared their open letter addressed to Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General within the scope of the international campaign of “The time has come, freedom for Abdullah Öcalan”.
“I am writing to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to urgently intervene to stop the genocide that the Turkish state is committing against Kurdish women and the Kurdish people, to stop the massacres that Erdoğan is committing against the people of Kurdistan.” said Claudia Korol, Member of the Feministas Populares del Abya Yala in Argentina.
“If the UN was really created to fight for peace, today this mission is being tested. To ensure a just peace in Turkey, the freedom of Öcalan is essential.”
Korol defined the isolation imposed on Abdullah Öcalan as “An aberrant injustice”. “To have the leader of the Kurdish people who has spent more than 20 years in prison in such cruel isolation can be considered real torture,” she said.
Korol also noted that the contribution of the Kurdish movement was essential for the defeat of ISIS and fascist forces in the region.
Korol: “Feminists want freedom for Öcalan”
She finally stated the importance of Öcalan’s freedom for feminists around the world stressing that he opened the way for a popular project where women are protagonists. “We ask for his freedom because there were many contributions that Öcalan made so that we could advance on the path of a dignified life for the peoples, where there is no fascist, racist, colonialist, imperialist, capitalist nor pathriarchal oppression,” she said.
“As feminists from a continent that has suffered genocide and colonialism, we say: Now is the time, Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan.”
Mother Cortinas: “We ask for the legitimate rights of the Kurdish people”
“We ask for the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan and the legitimate rights of the Kurdish people to be guaranteened,” said Nora Cortinas, a mother of Plaza de Mayo.
“We want peaceful co-existence for Arabs, Armenians, Assyrians, Persians, Turks, Kurds and all the peoples of the region,” she added.