'Great Freedom March' to conclude after 15 days

The "Great Freedom March," which commenced on February 1st in pursuit of the liberation of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan from isolation and a democratic resolution to the Kurdish issue, concludes today.

Keskin Bayındır, Co-Chair of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), remarked, "Today, they deployed thousands of police here, but they won't achieve any results from these policies. This march and resistance did not start 13 days ago; it began a hundred years ago."

On the final day of the march, politicians and representatives of democratic civil organizations will be in Amara village in Halfeti district, Urfa, where PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan was born.

The march initiated from two separate branches in Van and Kars. Along the way, the marchers visited Urfa, Bingöl, Dersim, Diyarbakır, Şırnak, Hakkâri, Ağrı, Mardin, Batman, Siirt, Elazığ, and Muş.

Some locations visited by the marchers during the march include the site where 17 people were killed in Digor district of Kars in 1993; the graves of Tahir Elçi, Sakine Cansız, İbrahim Ayhan, Mahmut Zengin, Salih Kandal, Musa Anter, Ceylan Önkol, Taybet İnan, the last seen place of Gülistan Doku, the Four-Legged Minaret, and the Revolutionary Youth Bridge built over the Zap River by Deniz Gezmiş and his friends.

Additionally, the marchers visited Kurdish prisoners who had ended 30 years of imprisonment, greeted shopkeepers welcoming them in cities, and visited families by going to their homes.

Throughout the marches, slogans such as "Bijî berxwedana zindanan" (Long live the prison resistance), "Bijî berxwedana Îmraliyê" (Long live the Imralı resistance), "Bîjî Serok Apo" (Long live Leader Apo), and "Bimre koleti, bijî azadî" (Death to colonialism, long live freedom) were frequently chanted.

Police obstacles

Politicians and representatives of democratic civil organizations faced police obstacles during the 15 days of the march. Numerous citizens were detained in home raids conducted in cities.

Tuncer Bakırkan, from the Peoples' Democratic Party (DEM Party), stated, "The Kurdish issue needs to be seriously discussed and resolved through dialogue and negotiation. Now, you may ask how this issue can be resolved; the solution is straightforward. The Kurdish people have created their own governance and counterparts. In resolving the Kurdish issue, the counterparts on the Kurdish side are clearly standing in the middle."

Beritan Güneş, DEM Party Deputy from Mardin, commented on the march: "This march did not begin today; it has been ongoing for a hundred years. The Kurdish people have been resisting for a hundred years. The Kurdish people have been resisting for 25 years for the freedom of Mr. Öcalan."

Hüseyin Olan, DEM Party Deputy from Bitlis, added: "You subjected the Kurds to genocide, threw them into acid wells, but you couldn't finish them. The mentality that said 'The dream of Kurdistan is captivated here' has seen its dreams shattered. The Kurdish people are the reality. The truth cannot be obscured. This march is a long one and will succeed." (TY/VK)