JINHA

WAN –A week of protests in Wan (Van, in Turkish) led up to a march of thousands through the streets this Sunday, the 16^th anniversary of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan's capture in an international plot.Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Van Province Co-Chair DeryaHayva made a statement in front of FeqiyêTeyran Park regarding Öcalan's imprisonment before the march.

"The goal of the orchestrators of this plot was to wipe out the Kurdish freedom movement and to create a long-lasting tension between the peoples of Turkey. But the search for resolution and dialogue, a search that Mr. Öcalan first started in 1993, has gained new strength on İmralı," said Derya, referring to the island where Öcalan is imprisoned. "It's turning into the peace process and ruining the foul plans of the sovereign powers." The women's revolution in Rojava, Derya said, was the latest fruit of this struggle for freedom.

Bearing signs and singing revolutionary anthems "ÇerxaŞoreşê" and the "Rojava March," the people chanted Kurdish and Turkish slogans calling for Öcalan's freedom, such as "no life without the leader." Among the thousands of attendees wereHDPand Democratic Regions Party (DBP) party members, provincial and regional co-chairs and co-mayors; HDP Van MP ÖzdalÜçer; associations in support of the families of political prisoners and the disappeared (TUYAD-DER and MEYAD-DER); the Saturday Mothers' Congress; activists from the Free Women's Congress (KJA); and many other civil society organizations.

Although police declared the march unauthorized, the crowd marched from the park to the DBP province headquarters. Clashes between police and the people of Wanerupted in the neighborhoods around the city center.