JINHA

NEWS CENTER –More than 10 million signatures gathered in the worldwide "Freedom for Öcalan" signature campaign will now be presented to the European Council.

The signature campaign, which began in Brussels on September 6, 2012, concluded with a press conference in Strasbourg, France. Reimer Heider, a member of the initiative "Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan – Peace in Kurdistan," announced the final count of signatures.

Initial signatories from across Europe and the Middle East were in attendance, including Professor Norman Paech of Germany; Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) MP ErtuğrulKürkçü;Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) Chairman TahirKemalizade;European Kurdish Women's Movement (TJKE) member Gönül Kaya;and politician and human rights activist Akın Birdal.

An earlier signature campaign, the "Öcalan is My Political Will" campaign that took place in 2005-2006, garnered 3,243,000 signatures.