ISTANBUL - Abdullah Öcalan sent a message to the European delegation that wanted to visit him. "I see it as part of the will for social peace, a democratic resolution, and the shared aspiration of peoples to live freely together."

 

Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan sent a written message to a delegation of 39 people, including academics, parliamentarians, lawyers and journalists, who travelled from Europe to Istanbul to visit him.

 

The delegation read Abdullah Öcalan's message at a "Round Table" meeting held at a hotel in Taksim.

 

Abdullah Öcalan's message is as follows:

 

“To the Esteemed Friends...

 

Your effort to bring attention to the quest for freedom embodied in my person, and your request to meet with me—undertaken despite the long journey—are profoundly meaningful and valuable to me.

 

Above all, I do not regard such an effort merely as an act of personal solidarity or an individual search for freedom; rather, I see it as part of the will for social peace, a democratic resolution, and the shared aspiration of peoples to live freely together.

 

I have never considered my personal freedom separately from social freedom. Indeed, I have always maintained that individual liberties cannot find their true meaning in the absence of social emancipation. For this reason, I view your initiative as a meaningful contribution and a courageous call for the shared democratic future of our peoples.

 

I have been informed of your request to meet. I hope that in the period ahead, the conditions necessary for such a meeting will emerge. In this regard, I send my greetings and respect to everyone who has contributed—not only on my behalf, but also in support of the democratic will and the quest for freedom of our peoples.

 

With the hope that we may meet face to face in days of freedom, within a society where democracy has truly taken root…

 

Abdullah Öcalan

 

İmralı Type-F High Security Prison"