On this day three quarters of a century ago, in a simple house in Amara, a small village in the province of Urfa, Abdullah Öcalan was born. Today, Kurds are Tweeting #RojbûnaMePîrozBe – birthday greetings not just to Öcalan, but birthday greetings to us. That is because Öcalan, and the movement he created, are seen as inspiring the rebirth of the Kurdish people: and now not only of the Kurdish people, but the rebirth of hope for a better society for people across the world.
Öcalan has spent just over 25 years – a third of his life – in a Turkish prison, where he has always faced severe levels of isolation, and where, for the last three years, his isolation from the outside world has been complete. We cannot communicate with him, but we can give him – and ourselves – the only present that counts – a commitment to campaign harder for an end to his isolation and for his ultimate release.