URFA – Öcalan's siblings Mehmet and Fatma Öcalan who shared their memories on the occasion of the 72nd birthday of Abdullah Öcalan, said that April 4, which has been celebrated in a festival atmosphere since 2004, is the holiday of the people.

 

PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, accepted as the will of millions of people, will be 72 years old in İmralı High Security F-Type Closed Prison, where he has been kept under isolation for 22 years. April 4, the birthday of Öcalan, which is massively celebrated in Amara (Ömerli) neighborhood of Halfeti in Urfa, where he was born, will be celebrated this year with the hunger strike action launched by thousands of prisoners against isolation and the freedom campaigns carried out all over the world. The schedules of the events to be held in Amara are still not clear, but like every year, millions will be follwing Amara. 

 

Before the April 4 celebration, his sister Fatma Öcalan and brother Mehmet Öcalan, told about their older brother Abdullah Öcalan, who grew up in the same house, worked together in the field. Both siblings told that they followed Öcalan's despite all the pressure, threats, and attacks.

 

HE WAS SO FULL OF LIFE

 

Mehmet Öcalan, who started his speech by showing the yard of the house where Öcalan was born and grew up, said: "We all grew up here. We used to earn our living from fields and gardens. We also had a small pistachio orchard. We were working as shepherds. He was full of life as a child. My mother always criticized this. She once said, "Can't you stay still for a minute?" At that time, male children were valued more. When we were outside for a long time, my mother would send my sisters Havva and Gülsüm to find us. We used to travel a lot. My mother was always looking for us."

 

HE LOOKED LIKE HE WAS ON A QUEST

 

Öcalan said that his brother had good relations with everyone and that he was doing it by considering every detail of his work and said, "Wherever he went, if he had a problem, he would have a friend with him. He would lead his life within certain rules. He was very serious about his work. He was always careful about doing what's right. We were always together before going to high school. After getting into high school, distance got between us. He looked like he was on a quest all his life. This was the reality of his life. He questioned this in every school he went to, he used to say, 'I am Kurdish but the school I attend is Turkish'. He said this even in his childhood years. Sometimes he read 10 hours a day. He tried to grasp the reality of everything by reading."

 

'LET IT BE THE YEAR OF PEACE'

 

Saying that they are waiting for the guests who want to come to Amara on April 4, Mehmet Öcalan said: "The government may want to prevent celebrations due to the pandemic. But those who want to come can come by taking their precautions. The government should not stop people. Nobody except the government causes any problems here. 22 years of imprisonment is very long and has no precedent in the world. The people involved in the conspiracy have great responsibility in this. Öcalan's influence on the Middle East is enormous. I wish this April 4 to lead to peace. I hope it will be a year in which the president will be free and there will be peace in the Middle East."

 

LOVED THE CHILDREN

 

Fatma Öcalan stated that her brother was very hardworking while working together in the field, that he finished his job early, and his approach to his siblings was good, and his brother was a very good person since childhood. Explaining that her brother helped them a lot while working in the field, Fatma Öcalan stating that "We loved each other very much. I still love him so much. He would go to the field overnight and finish his work. All the children in the village wanted to spend time with him, they loved him. Sometimes my mother got angry, she used to say, "Enough is enough, do not bring these kids here". He would say, "I love children." He was teaching children while he was studying in secondary school. Many of those kids became teachers. We had a tree in the field behind the village. After his work was done, he used to say, "I will go to the tree. I would be there for a while and read a book. He spent half of the day there."

 

'THEY WERE GOING TO SET US ON FIRE'

 

Reminding the day, when he was delivered to Turkey, Fatma Öcalan said: "It was a very bad day. We did not cook or eat for a week. I entered the room and locked the door on me and did not leave for a week. We were very upset. We could not do anything. When I went to visit him for the first time and saw him, I started crying. He said to me, "Crying is not our tradition." Later, we spoke. But I couldn't stop crying. He was being tortured. They insulted us everytime we went to İmralı. They threw stones at us. Once, we went to visit him.  Mehmet, Havva, my uncle, and the children. They surrounded the hotel we stayed in Bursa. They were going to set us on fire. Lawyers called us and told us to leave, they said, "They will burn you, get out of there." "We left the hotel at night and then came to Istanbul the same night."

 

'I WANT TO SEE MY BROTHER'

 

Stating that they were worried about her brother's health condition, Fatma Öcalan said that "I could not sleep for 2 nights after the allegations on the social media. I am very concerned. I missed my brother very much. I wish I could see him. I am sick, I have not been able to see him for about 6 years. If they let me, I would go see him in my wheelchair. I want to see my brother before I die. He is being kept in a room there alone. He can not see anyone. Even birds can not stay alive in a cage alone. He has been in prison for 22 years. He is under constant pressure."

 

MA / Barış Polat