The demand for “Freedom for Abdullah Ocalan” has evolved over the years from a popular movement to an international women’s solidarity. Almost most of the campaigns organised for Abdullah Ocalan’ freedom are led by women. Women, who see Abdullah Ocalan’s freedom as their own freedom, are fighting for it all over the world. 

 

The demand for the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan, the builder of the ideology of women's liberation, is seen as part of women's struggle for their own existence. Abdullah Öcalan's women's liberation perspective has opened a new path for women in the Middle East, where patriarchy is at its sharpest. For this reason, the absolute isolation imposed on Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı is seen as a siege on the ideology of women's liberation. For this reason, the physical freedom of Abdullah Öcalan is seen by women not only as the liberation of an individual, but also as one of the thresholds of social liberation.

 

It is for these reasons that the "Freedom for Öcalan" campaigns carried out all over the world today are embraced by women.

 

WOMEN ARE LEADING 

 

Campaigns for the physical freedom of Abdullah Ocalan have continued in various dimensions since the International Conspiracy in 1999. However, in the 2020s, these efforts crossed a new threshold. Campaigns organised under the slogan “The Time Has Come: Free Ocalan”, have become widespread, led by women, both in many European cities and regions such as Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. 

 

Especially the women's movement led by the European Free Women's Movement (TJK-E-Tevgera Jinên Kurd ê Ewropayê) organised rallies, panels and academic meetings in countries such as Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The solidarity relationship established with the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo in Argentina was a concrete indication of the universal reception of Öcalan's ideas by women. 

 

FIRST ACTION BY WOMEN

 

The first steps of the campaign for freedom for Abdullah Ocalan were taken immediately after the international conspiracy in 1999. From that period onwards, women began to raise their voices against the rights violations against Abdullah Ocalan, who was held in absolute isolation in prison. 

 

However, the campaigns had not only legal, but also ideological, cultural and social content. From the 2000s onwards, the Kurdish women’s movement began to organise mass actions, long marches and diplomatic initiatives with the slogan "Women cannot be free without the freedom of the Leader".

 

THE DEMAND FOR FREEDOM BECAME UNIVERSAL

 

In 2005, international women's organisations established under the leadership of Kurdish women living in Europe started to organise simultaneous international actions for the first time with the demand for "freedom for Öcalan, status for the Kurdish people". These activities, led by the Kurdish women's movement in countries such as Germany, France, the Netherlands and Sweden, not only expanded women's organisations in the diaspora, but also enabled strategic steps to be taken to inform western public opinion.

 

The language, form and action repertoire of the campaigns were characterised by women's creative, aesthetic and solidaristic features. Colourful marches, performative actions, mass leaflet readings and women's festivals transformed the demand for freedom for Abdullah Öcalan into a universal women's language.

 

FROM EUROPE TO LATIN AMERICA

 

In time, these campaigns were not limited to Kurdish women in Europe. In Latin America, the Argentine Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, Colombian women peace defenders and Mapuche women from Chile sent messages of solidarity with Abdullah Ocalan’s women’s liberationist paradigm. 

 

Since the 2010s, relations with feminist structures in India, the Philippines, Lebanon and North Africa have strengthened the ties of these campaigns with the world women’s movement. As women discovered that Abdullah Ocalan’s ideology of women’s liberation offered a powerful alternative to the male-dominated state system, they began to see his freedom as a precondition for their own struggle. 

 

10 MILLION SIGNATURES 

 

Launched in 2012, the "Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, Political Solution to the Kurdish Question" campaign became one of the biggest public campaigns in history. In a short period of 15 months, more than 10 million people around the world signed the petition demanding Abdullah Öcalan's freedom. Women's organisations, trade unions, peace initiatives and academics involved in the coordination of the campaign explained that this process was not only a signature gathering activity, but also an opportunity to explain the Kurdish people's demand for a democratic solution to the world. 

 

PEOPLES GAVE STRONG SUPPORT

 

The campaign was particularly well received in Europe, Latin America and South Africa. Many figures from the freedom movement in South Africa, including Nelson Mandela's lawyers, said that Abdullah Öcalan's imprisonment reminded them of the apartheid era. The diplomatic network developed under the leadership of women's organisations turned the campaign into a public diplomacy.

 

‘THE WOMEN'S REVOLUTION CANNOT BE CONFINED TO ISOLATION’

 

The "The Time Has Come- Freedom for Öcalan" campaign, launched in 2022, was the global culmination of this process. Hundreds of women's organisations from 100 countries signed this campaign. In the same year, simultaneous marches were organised in Paris, Berlin, London, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Tehran and Qamişlo (Qamishlo). The banners carried in these marches shouted how women transformed their own lives with Abdullah Öcalan's ideas; slogans such as "If Öcalan is free, we will be free", "The name of peace: Abdullah Öcalan", "Women's revolution does not fit in isolation!" became the common language of the protests.

 

INTERNATIONAL CALL FOR FREEDOM

 

Panels on Abdullah Öcalan's ideas were organised at women's conferences in countries such as France, Germany, England, Canada, Chile, India and Lebanon. Feminist academics stated that Abdullah Öcalan's views on women's liberation blended with socialist thought to offer a universal perspective. In the final declaration of the international women's conference held in Berlin in 2023, a call was made for freedom to end the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan.

 

DIPLOMATIC INITIATIVES

 

The "Freedom for Öcalan" campaign, led by women's organisations, showed a strong presence not only on the streets but also in the diplomatic arena. Reports submitted to the European Parliament, letters sent to the United Nations, actions against the CPT and initiatives by lawyers constituted the official dimension of this endeavour. 

 

Through women lawyers, feminist bar associations and women parliamentarians, the thesis that the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan violates international law was repeatedly brought to the agenda. Demonstrations in many European cities with the slogan "İmralı system is a crime against humanity" fed this diplomatic ground with mass actions.

 

With the "Call for Peace and Democratic Society", the demand for freedom for Abdullah Öcalan became a common demand not only of the Kurdish people but also of the women of the world. 

 

The women-led struggle for "Freedom for Öcalan" is shaping up as a rebellion against the male-dominated character of capitalist modernity. Today, women all over the world, from Rojava to Berlin, from Qendîl (Qandil) to Buenos Aires, are shouting for Abdullah Öcalan's freedom.

 

MA / Fırat Can Arslan