The great march • Day after day…

The “Free­dom for Öcalan and for all polit­i­cal pris­on­ers” Com­mit­tee is orga­niz­ing its sec­ond march which will last ten days, from Feb­ru­ary 8 to 17 2018. Kedis­tan will report on it through the words of French-speak­ing par­tic­i­pants.   Fol­low this pub­li­ca­tion for reg­u­lar updates. 

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Thursday February 8 2018

The great march for the lib­er­a­tion of Abdul­lah Öcalan began this morning.

Fol­low­ing a press con­fer­ence in front of the Euro­pean Court of Jus­tice in Lux­em­burg, some hun­dred inter­na­tion­al­ist walk­ers rep­re­sent­ing some fif­teen dif­fer­ent nation­al­i­ties in Europe, Latin Amer­i­ca and the Mid­dle East head­ed for their first stopover.

They were sub­ject­ed to a strict con­trol of their papers by local police and gen­darmes at the French bor­der. Once again, the fight for free­dom and an end to mas­sacres in Kur­dis­tan is con­front­ed by ille­git­i­mate sus­pi­cion in France, a coun­try that should rather acknowl­edge the blood shed by the Kur­dish fight­ers and the Syr­i­an Demo­c­ra­t­ic Forces against ISIS and the obscu­ran­tism in this region and across the world. Once again, we see in this the per­sis­tent French and Euro­pean hypocrisy in the silence and the crim­i­nal­i­sa­tion which allows a fas­cist Turk­ish regime to per­pet­u­ate its geno­cide.   Tomor­row, we the marchers, will con­tin­ue our march, deter­mined to break this silence!

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Friday February 9 2018

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Saturday February 10 2018

The marchers left Thionville in a souther­ly direction.

After receiv­ing an encour­ag­ing mes­sage from the YPG, they were greet­ed by the may­or of Guenange.Ten com­munes are now tak­ing part in the great march, each with a num­ber and a spe­cif­ic name. Fol­low­ing an ini­tia­tive by the French women, one of the com­munes bears the name of Sehid Kemal-Ser­hat Nico­las Aky­ol. These inter­na­tion­al­ists ded­i­cate their march to this young fight­er, felled in the moun­tains of Kur­dis­tan, fight­ing for a just world and the hope for a new future for all of humanity.

The third day of the march for the Lib­er­a­tion of Öcalan took place between  Talange and Pom­pieres (Moselle).

Six brief provo­ca­tions by Turk­ish fas­cists took place on this part of the march, but with no seri­ous con­se­quences. We note good reac­tions by passers by, all the way to sym­pa­thy and sin­cere support.

This after­noon, the Kur­dish tele­vi­sion sterk trans­mit­ted a direct and simul­ta­ne­ous pro­gram on the demon­stra­tion in Paris, the Euro­pean mobi­liza­tions for Afrin and images of the inter­na­tion­al­ist marchers. This media as well as çira TV have jour­nal­ists at our sides daily.

We are about to par­tic­i­pate in the first sem­i­nar orga­nized on the march’s route. The pur­pose being to share alter­na­tive expe­ri­ences from our respec­tive countries.

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Sunday February 11 2018

This morn­ing, the inter­na­tion­al­ists began with a sem­i­nar on the strug­gles in their respec­tive coun­tries and regions.

Rep­re­sent­ed : Por­tu­gal, euskal her­ria ( basque), Aragon, Andalu­sia, Cat­alo­nia, Italy, France, Swe­den, Nor­way, Colum­bia, Ger­many. The his­to­ry of these areas  and their links with Kur­dis­tan were devel­oped in detail.

It is snow­ing on Talange but noth­ing stops the marchers. Nei­ther wind nor sleet keep them from march­ing on toward saint Avold, where they will spend part of the night. Slo­gans and music res­onate in sev­er­al vil­lages all through the after­noon, which gives an idea of their determination.

This evening, the pre­sen­ta­tions con­tin­ue and the mood is to danc­ing. As is often the case, con­certs are expect­ed. The depar­ture for Switzer­land will take place dur­ing the night.

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Monday February 12

Fifth day. 8h00. Arriv­ing in Lau­sanne, the bus is greet­ed by many com­rades from the Kur­dis­tan cul­tur­al cen­ter. A press con­fer­ence is orgnized in front of the build­ing where the Lau­sanne agree­ments were signed in 1923. 22 rep­re­sen­ta­tives of orga­ni­za­tions speak before the cam­eras. Among them, the pyd, the Swiss eco­log­i­cal par­ty, a local elect­ed mem­ber, the Kur­dish wom­en’s move­ment in Europe…

We are one thou­sand march­ing today across the Swiss town along the lake, and through the very com­fort­able neigh­bor­hoods in the periphery.

The evening will be short because a great cul­tur­al exchange occurred the day before. Indeed, we were pre­sent­ed with tra­di­tion­al songs and dances from many coun­tries par­tic­i­pat­ing in the march. The evening was fes­tive and prolonged…

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The march will con­tin­ue gath­er­ing all those who will join in depend­ing on the areas it will cross, on the road from Lux­em­burg to Stras­burg, to end in front of the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion and the Euro­pean Com­mit­tee for the Pre­ven­tion of Torture.

to be continued…

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Translation by Renée Lucie Bourges
iknowiknowiknowblog.wordpress.com

En français : La grande marche • Jours après jours… Cliquez pour lire

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