Hundreds of thousands to march to Gemlik for Öcalan 2015-07-27 22:18:12 DİYARBAKIR (DİHA) - The Federation of Associations of Solidarity and Legal Aid for Families of Prisoners (TUHAD-FED) has organized a great march in demand of freedom for Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan. The march from the main Kurdish city Diyarbakır to Gemlik district of Bursa, two miles off the coast of Imrali Island where PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan is jailed, will be staged under the slogan "Hundreds of thousands marching for the freedom of the Leader". The march led by Federation of Associations of Solidarity and Legal Aid for Families of Prisoners will take place on August 1st. No meetings have been held since April 5 with the Kurdish leader who is being held under aggravated isolation in İmralı island prison since his capture as a result of an international conspiracy in 1999. After a series of campaigns and events demanding freedom for Öcalan during recent years, the Kurdish people are now preparing to voice an answer to the warfare recently initiated against them by the Turkish state. During early 2000's, Kurds from across Turkey and Kurdistan staged marches to Gemlik to demand freedom for their leader. A statement made to the press by TUHAD-FED Co-Presidents Bahar Oktay and Mehmet Temizyüz today pointed out that the attitude adopted by the Turkish government against the process of democratic resolution and peace, which was initiated by Öcalan in 2013, has manifested itself as war. "We as hundreds of thousands will march to Gemlik on August 1st because we believe it is not isolation but freedom of Öcalan that will be the best answer for the peoples today, the Kurdish people in the first place", said the statement by Co-Presidents of TUHAD-FED who invited all the Kurdish people to join the freedom march. (nt)