NEWS CENTER - In its statement on the 15 February conspiracy, the Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan Arab Initiative called for the lifting of the isolation imposed on Abdullah Öcalan for lasting peace in the region. 

 

In its statement on the 27th anniversary of the 15 February International Conspiracy, the Arab Initiative for the Freedom of Abdullah Öcalan emphasised that ideas and philosophy cannot be suppressed and that lasting stability cannot be built on the foundations of cooperation between peoples.

 

According to Hawar News Agency (ANHA) the statement reads:  "Twenty-seven years have passed since one of the most dangerous events in the history of the modern Middle East: the abduction of leader Abdullah Ocalan min a complex international operation led by NATO, under the leadership of the United States and Israel, on February 15, 1999. This followed a campaign of pressure and forced displacement that began in the fall of 1998. This operation was not targeting a specific individual, but rather the Kurdish people and an intellectual and political project that offered a different vision for the structure of the conflict in the region and its historical stakes."

 

The statement added: "The years have proven that this conspiracy was not a passing event within the context of an internal conflict, but rather part of a broader re-engineering of the Middle East. This re-engineering aimed to thwart any attempt to build a democratic path based on the fraternity of peoples and coexistence among national and religious groups, far removed from the logic of exclusion and the closed nation-state.

 

Today, twenty-seven years later, the same conspiracy is being revived with different tools. The Turkish regime, along with the forces that carried out the international conspiracy in the kidnapping operation decades ago, returned a few weeks ago to lead the January 6th conspiracy, which aimed to eliminate the autonomous administration project in NE Syria. This project emerged from Ocalan’s ideas about the democratic nation, decentralization, and building a participatory social contract between Kurds, Arabs, Syriacs, and other components.”

 

The statement clarified that “what has happened and is happening is not a border conflict or a technical dispute over administrative arrangements, but rather a systematic attempt to strike at a political model that has proven—despite the siege, the war, and the complexities of geography—the possibility of coexistence far removed from civil war. It is also a direct attack on the path of Kurdish-Arab cooperation that was formed during the years of confrontation with ISIS, which presented a practical model of field and societal partnership that shattered many of the stereotypes fostered by decades of tyranny and division.”

 

It noted: “The forces behind the 1999 conspiracy realized that targeting Ocalan was not enough unless his project was also targeted, and today the scene is repeating itself: the attack is not only targeting an administrative structure, but also the idea upon which it was based, namely the idea that true stability in the Middle East is not built by coercion, but by participation, and is not imposed by hegemony, but by consensus.”

 

The statement emphasized that "targeting the autonomous administration project and the spirit of coexistence and fraternity in Syria is simultaneously targeting the peace process and the democratic society initiated by Leader Ocalan on February 27, 2015, in which the Kurdish side has taken significant steps, while the Turkish side has failed to reciprocate with any serious steps, most importantly regarding the freedom of Leader Ocalan."

 

The Arab Initiative for the Freedom of Abdullah Ocalan affirmed the following in its statement:

 

“*We condemn the international conspiracy that led to Ocalan’s abduction, and we hold the Turkish regime and the international powers involved in this conspiracy primarily responsible for leading and executing it, within a regional and international context in which multiple powers colluded.

 

*We believe that his continued and severe isolation for the past twenty-seven years constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and the values of human justice, and that this continued isolation renders him incapable of playing a fundamental role in the peace process and in building a democratic society.

 

*We consider the targeting of the autonomous administration project and the attempt to dismantle it by force to be a direct extension of the first conspiracy, aimed at undermining any possibility of a democratic solution to the Kurdish question within the framework of existing states.

 

*We affirm that striking at the Kurdish-Arab alliance serves the agendas of fragmentation and chaos, and does not serve the peoples of the region who have paid a heavy price in confronting terrorism and extremism

 

The statement also stressed that "on this twenty-seventh anniversary, we recall not only the past as a tragedy, but also as an open lesson: its thought and philosophy cannot be eliminated by arrest, nor can lasting stability be built on the ruins of partnerships between peoples."