Çiçek Otlu, the Istanbul MP for the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party, marked Newroz with fervor in Kocaeli, Turkey, on Sunday.
Otlu dedicated the celebrations to Abdullah Öcalan, the incarcerated leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and all other prisoners. She called for solidarity against the forces that oppress the working class and marginalise Kurds, revolutionaries and socialists in the country.
“Against this regime that denies and kills us, long live freedom, long live Newroz,” Otlu declared. The gathering attracted crowds from dawn, voicing their demand for freedom and showing support for Abdullah Öcalan despite prohibitions on the display of Kurdish colours.
Another DEM Party MP, Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, sharply criticised the government’s focus on surveillance over addressing significant local issues such as environmental harm and workplace hazards in Kocaeli, an industrial city that faces severe environmental degradation.