Solidarity with the Kurdish people!
"We strongly condemn the European governments who together with the American and Israeli leaders are responsible for kidnapping and sending back of the PKK leader Abdullah Ocelan to Turkey – a country that criminalises the political struggle, practices torture and maintains a legal death penalty.
The European Union has hypocritically closed its eyes to the situation of the Kurdish people while at the same time the "international community" pretends to protect the Kosovar people in the name of liberty and democratic rights.
The cohesion of NATO and the defence of the powerful American interests in the region have prevailed over human rights and the Convention on Refugees.
This cynical policy has provoked violent confrontations, including in the major cities in Europe.
It has helped the Turkish regime – which has over the years repressed thousands of Turkish citizens; human rights activists, trade union and political militants, members of parliaments, journalists and artists – to worsen the oppression of the Kurds.
We struggle in favour of:
Respect for human rights, including the abolition of the death penalty and the suppression of all anti-democratic laws which prevent freedom of opinion and organisation, and amongst them the so-called "anti-terrorist" laws.
Amnesty for all political prisoners, Turks and Kurdish
The dissolution of all the ‘special’ war units and the so-called "village militias" in the Kurdish region;
The suppression of the "emergency law"; and the possibility for all those who have been chased from their villages to return, with financial compensation for the material damages they have suffered.
The recognition of the right to self-determination for the Kurdish people."
(adopted by the International Executive Committee of the Fourth International, 25 Feb. 1999)