JINHA

AMED – The organizing committee preparing for the massive celebration of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan's birthday on April 4 say they are expecting thousands for the celebration.

The celebrations this year are being organized by TUHAD-FED, an organization that coordinates legal solidarity for families of prisoners. To celebrate the jailed PKK leader's 66^th birthday, a day when Kurdish people gather to celebrate the birth of resistance, the group will be planting 66 different kinds of saplings in the small town in Urfa province. 66 artists will be taking to the stage.

Bahar Oktay, a TUHAD-FED lawyer and a member of the organizing committee for the celebrations, says there were around 100,000 attendees last year. This year, they are expect 150,000. "Freedom for Öcalan" marches from Urfa, Adıyaman and Antep will be among the many visitors converging on the town.

The celebrations will also involve an exhibit of photographs of Öcalan and memorial ceremonies for Mustafa Dağ and MahsunKaraoğlan, the two people killed in the Turkish military police's intervention on the "freedom for Öcalan" march that took place six years agoduring the birthday celebrations.

(sg-tt/fk/cm)