Art For Öcalan

31 May 2012


International Initiative launched new campaign for Öcalan

When words come to an end... art has to speak. With this suggestive opening the International Initiative has launched a new campaign calling on artists around the world to offer their imagination and skills to highlight the plight of Turkish state most famous prisoner, Kurdish leader

Abdullah Öcalan. The website of the campaign can be found at

http://art-for-ocalan.org/

Öcalan has been denied meetings with his lawyers since 27 July 2011 and nobody really knows how he is.

The International Initiative published numerous texts about Abdullah Öcalan’s prison situation and the important role he will play in any peace process. Now, the statement of the new campaign says "we feel that words cannot express all aspects of what is really happening".

The manifesto reads:

An extraordinary political prisoner


On an island, surrounded by water,


No one to talk to, only books to read


No handshake, no embrace since 1999


Total ban on his mother language, Kurdish


13 years of isolation,

13 years of white torture


In a military prohibited area, guarded by 1000 soldiers


Writing more than 7000 pages of books without a typewriter

Art for Öcalan then, to expose once again the isolation the Kurdish leader is subjected to and to call for the international community to act and support the efforts for peace Öcalan himself has relentlessly brought forward.

Millions of Kurds have rallied again and again for Öcalan’s freedom and a political solution. But their voice is often unheard. Art can make a difference.

The campaign calls on "artists who want to support the campaign for Öcalan’s freedom through their art. This can be pictures, drawings, sculptures, videos, songs, poems, texts. Creativity knows no boundaries.

We will publish your artwork on this website, organize exhibitions, print it to posters, postcards, stickers, shirts…

If you are an artist and interested in joining the “Art for Öcalan” campaign, please contact us".

Coordination bureau of the International Initiative “Freedom for Abdullan Öcalan – Peace in Kurdistan”

Contact email: art@freedom-for-ocalan.com


Twitter: @freeocalan

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