Culture and Art Campaign for the Freedom of Abdullah Öcalan initiative in Cologne

"We are launching a Culture and Art Campaign for the Freedom of Abdullah Öcalan," said TEV-ÇAND and Kevana Zêrîn adding that they will hold a big event at the Cologne Dom Cathedral.

ANF
COLOGNE
Saturday, 4 Nov 2023

TEV-ÇAND and Kevana Zêrîn will hold a big event for Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan in Cologne, tomorrow, 5 November.

Performers, painters, theater actors and folk dance actors will participate in the event titled "Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan". The event will be held in front of the Dom Cathedral between 1 and 5 pm.

Speaking to ANF, Hozan Şemdîn said: "Singers and musicians will attend the event with their own instruments. We will all wear national clothes. Our painters will exhibit their paintings. We invite all our people to this event."

Hozan Şemdîn also said that hundreds of TEV-ÇAND members from all branches of art will be present at the event.

During the four-hour program, songs about Abdullah Öcalan and Kurdistan will be sung, and the dance groups will perform folkloric dances. In addition, information will be given about the condition of Abdullah Öcalan.

'Culture and art campaign for Abdullah Öcalan's freedom'

TEV-ÇAND and Kevana Zêrîn published a joint written statement to present the event saying: "We support the Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, Political Solution to the Kurdish Question campaign."

The statement also drew attention to 10 December, the day on which the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted at the United Nations in 1948.

"The 75th anniversary of this declaration will be on 10 December 2023. The Turkish state accepted this declaration in 1949. However, the inalienable human rights of the Kurds have been systematically violated by the Turkish state every day for 75 years."

The statement also underlined that Abdullah Öcalan was the theorist and philosophical leader of the Kurdish Freedom Movement and that he had been kept under heavy isolation for 24 years. "The isolation imposed on Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] is essentially an isolation imposed on his political ideas and his proposal and work to have a successful peace process. Isolation is illegal and is a form of torture. In order to break the isolation, we are launching the 'Culture and Art Campaign for the Freedom of Abdullah Öcalan'."

The statement pointed out that Kurdish literature, history, music and art are denied and banned by the Turkish state and said: "This is cultural genocide. All kinds of oppressive violence are applied to the Kurdish people and unlimited assimilation policies are implemented. All of these are crimes. We reject this cultural genocide. We are fighting for it to end."

The joint statement ended as follows: "As Kurdistan artists, we do not accept the isolation imposed on Rêber Apo. We declare that we will participate with our art in the events organized to break the isolation and achieve Rêber Apo's physical freedom."