Head of IRSP in Britain Expresses Solidarity with Kurdish Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source - IRSP Head of IRSP in Britain Expresses Solidarity with Kurdish Struggle Terry O hEarcain, a member of the Irish Republican Socialist Party's International Department Secretariat, and Coordinator of the IRSP's sections in Britain, spoke at a rally in London today, in support of Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK, and the Kurdish struggle for national liberation and social justice. O hEarcain's participation was part of an ongoing, and growing, display of profound solidarity for the struggle of the PKK by the IRSP. Below is a report on the first day of Ocalan's trial in Turkey: ___________________________________ Immediately after the establishment of his identity, the PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan declared that his trial did not rest on legal grounds, but was a purely political trial. Accordingly, he said he would defend himself only politically. He reiterated that he still meant what he said on the day he was arrested: "I want to live for the sake of peace. And for the sake of peace it is important that I stay alive." Ocalan protested against the breaches of international safeguards on the part of Russia, Greece, Kenya, and partially Italy, who played a role in his illegal abduction. On these grounds alone, his trial is unlawful. Thus, he said, his defence was also of no legal value, but his reason for speaking in his own defense flowed from an urge to contribute to a solution to the conflict on the basis of a democratic republic. Addressing the relatives of Turkish soldiers who lost their lives in the war, Ocalan said that he shared their pain deeply. He apologised to them for any part of their pain for which he was personally responsible and repeated that he was ready to do whatever necessary to get join together and stop the bloodshed. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-06.02.99-09:24:17-23162