URFA - Kurds started flocking to Amara to celebrate the 73rd birthday of PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan. Dancing the Halay where they gathered, the crowd demands the freedom of Öcalan.

 

PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan is turning 73 in Imrali Type F High Security Prison, where he has been held under severe isolation conditions for 23 years. While saplings have been planted in many cities for Öcalan's 73rd birthday, today, in the Amara (Ömerli) district of Urfa, where Öcalan was born, the MED Federation of Prisoners and Convicts Legal and Solidarity Associations (MED TUHAD-FED) A mass celebration will be held under the leadership of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), the Free Women's Movement (TJA), the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) and the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

 

PEOPLE FLOCKING TO AMARA FROM ALL SIDES 

 

Citizens wanting to participate in the celebrations started flocking to Amara since yesterday afternoon. Coming from Diyarbakır, Botan, Serhat and Çukurova in the direction of Amara, the crowd is marching on the Halfeti road. Trying to block the march to Amara, the police and the soldiers are trying to prevent the people from reaching Amara. Getting off their cars on the road, people are dancing the Halay with slogan "Rojbûna te pîroz be ey Serok Apo".

 

CELEBRATIONS STARTED WITH THE TRADITIONAL KURDISH DANCE HALAY

 

While police barricades are closing the roads to Halfeti, people started to gather at Gogan neigborhood. The crowd is expected to march to Amara from Gogan.

 

On the other hand, it has been learned that HDP's Urfa MPs Ömer Öcalan and party members and a group of artists from Adana have reached Amara and are waiting to greet the citizens with Öcalan's family.