“We must continue to fight so that he is released”: in Strasbourg, the release of Assange raises hope for that of Abdullah Ocalan

Mayor of Geneva three times between 2009 and 2018, Rémy Pagani began his career as a human rights activist in 1961 at the age of 16, campaigning against the Franco regime in Spain. After having cut his teeth in Geneva municipal politics, where he led actions for the right to housing, notably occupying 1,000 apartments in the 1970s, he was a deputy for the “Together on the Left” group for 20 years, before to join the Popular Union party classified to the left of the left. He came to demonstrate in front of the Council of Europe on Tuesday morning to demand the release of Kurdish political prisoners, while insisting on the role that the release of Julian Assange can play for all political prisoners.

How does your support for Kurdish political prisoners, including Abdullah Ocalan, fit into your fight for human rights today?

When I had vacation as mayor of Geneva, I took the opportunity to go support human rights activists in Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or in Colombia, with the International Committee of the Red Cross (the ICRC was created in 1863 by a group of Geneva citizens, editor’s note). I also went to look for child soldiers in clandestine prisons in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and I have also always supported the Kurds and the Catalans.

When in 2016, the mayor of Diyarbakir, Gültan Kisanak, alerted all mayors in Europe after being arrested by the Erdogan regime, I responded immediately, but I arrived too late. Fortunately we were able to rescue the co-mayor of Diarbakir who had not been arrested and we found him refugee status in Geneva. I went to Iraqi Kurdistan to denounce Erdogan’s abuses, who are razing villages. What few people know is that the Turkish army continues to raze, mistreat and kill Kurds who are opponents. I have always been active in the self-determination of peoples. In Geneva, we defend human rights, so I went there to help concretely.

Specifically, what do you think of the Council of Europe, in front of which you are demonstrating today, in the face of the case of Abdullah Ocalan? A prisoner in Turkey for 25 years with no hope of ever being released, which is contrary to international law, and whose lawyers have had no news for three years, which also flouts the Convention on Human Rights?

While campaigning against Franco with Spanish comrades, I learned that invisibility allows politicians to close their mouths and their eyes. What we are doing here today is making the arbitrary detention of Ocalan visible, in the same way that people seized on the Palestinian cause to make it visible. As happened with Julian Assange. At the time, I participated in the solidarity movement for Mandela, and it’s the same thing for Ocalan. I am convinced that by continuing relentlessly, one day, Ocalan will be the person who will initiate peace negotiations and find a humane and humanist way out of the crisis for the Kurds and for everyone.

For the moment, we do not see that the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe is very mobilized on the case of Ocalan.

This is why we are here before this parliament. The Kurds have been keeping a constant watch before the Council of Europe for 12 years, which is extraordinary. One day MPs will finally realize this. Today, parliamentarians participated in our action, joining the demand for the release of Ocalan, those of Irish Sinn Féin are there regularly, the Catalans too. Many here this morning are invoking the figure of Julian Assange who has just been released.

What does the outcome of the Assange affair inspire you on the role of international mobilization in cases like this?

This is extremely important. We, for example, in the Swiss cantonal parliament or the municipal parliament, we voted for a resolution for the release of Assange, which means that at a given moment, people take up the problem and find that we are facing a unacceptable case. And when parliaments get started, politicians like Joe Biden say to themselves that if they want to be re-elected, they too must be in this movement rather than against the tide. It is from this point of view that we must continue to fight so that Ocalan is released and that this becomes part of an international solidarity movement. Parliamentarians must take action and pass resolutions for the release of Ocalan.

You are also involved in what is happening in France during the legislative elections in a few days. How do you perceive these elections from Switzerland?

I am both French and Swiss, and as a French national living abroad, I am leading a campaign in Geneva for the 170,000 French citizens who live on Swiss territory and in Lichtenstein. We have a candidate in the colors of the New Popular Front, Halima Delimi, a Geneva socialist. We hope that Macron’s candidate, Marc Ferrachi, will not pass, and we estimate that the situation would be extremely serious if the National Rally passes (Déborah Merceron is the RN candidate, Editor’s note). Because as soon as they have power, they will implement what fits their political identity: repress society, expel refugees, carry out reactionary right-wing policies. All while pretending that they are defending people which is not true, they will be against the population.

In the last elections of 2022 in the 6th constituency of French people living abroad, it was not the RN which passed but a Macronist parachuted in. We are holding demonstrations in Geneva to denounce the threats posed by the RN. For the moment in Switzerland, we are in a fairly easy position since we can block fascist initiatives through popular referendums, but tomorrow, it could be the steamroller.