The impact of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan's "Call for Peace and Democratic Society" on 27 February continues. Support for the call, which had a great repercussion in many parts of the world, is also growing. A group of international youth who participated in the Amed Newroz from different countries shared their observations in the Newroz areas and shared their thoughts on the call.

 

Simon Helfrich, a member of the International Youth Communes (Internationale Jugendkommune), stated that he has been following the Kurdistan agenda for a long time and drew attention to Abdullah Öcalan's "Call for Peace and Democratic Society". 

 

"Many people who lost family members in the armed struggle are now really have a lot of hope again, and really look forward to this change. I also think it's a really smart move of Abdullah Öcalan. It's hard to understand, but I think it opens the door for really new kind of politics," he added. 

 

'WE PUT A LOT TRUST ON ÖCALAN'  

 

Helfrich said that the most important path to a solution is the coexistence of peoples and added: "March we visit also the Newroz Fest. There we saw that, especially the youth of Kurdistan really supports, still, the freedom freedom movement. The youth knows what that stands for. It's good that they know again, show their faces and show their stance and still support also Abdullh Öcalan. I really encourage international viewers to open their minds and realize that the old ways of revolution here, sometimes in history, they worked, but we could see it in the last 20 years, nearly no revolutionary movement could succeed with these old techniques and this dogmatism on revolutionary violence. So I think we now have put a lot of trust also on the Kurdish movement and Abdullah Öcalan to have made these new experiences also for all the revolutionary movements all over the world."

 

'THEY STRUGGLE FOR A BETTER WORLD'  

 

Susana Miquel, a member of the Youth Assembly of the Republican Left Party, emphasised that Abdullah Öcalan's call had great repercussions and said: "I think Kurdish people will be strong enough to still defend their demands, even though they leave their weapons aside. From Catalonia and from other European countries, we will support their cause. Because we think that they are fighting for a better world. They have been struggling for their identity and their self determination all these years, and they have to continue doing it, maybe now in a different way but that can be useful anyways. I would say to my comrades or compatriots that knowing the Kurdish people can be really useful for us, because we share lots of similar realities. And also I really appreciate the perspective and strategy the Kurdish movement has, because I think it's something that us as Catalan independence have lost a bit these last years, and we have to have some hope and optimism back. Spending these last days here has helped me a lot to have this inside me and I hope I'm able to transfer it to my country too.

"

 

MA / Melik Çelik