Professor Sandro Mezzadra of the University of Bologna, Professor Marta Segarra of the University of Barcelona, and Professor Enzo Traverso of Cornell University have expressed their support for Mr. Öcalan’s Call for Peace and Democratic Society.
Professor Sandro Mezzadra stated in his message as follows:
"On February 27, Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan issued a call for peace and a democratic society, declaring to the world that the fate of the Kurdish people is not a tragic one.
In the current conjuncture of war, Öcalan’s words open a horizon of peace and coexistence in Turkey. They build upon his rigorous criticism of nationalism and of the structural link between capitalism and the nation-state. The predicament, the long suffering and discrimination of the Kurds were turned by him into a vision for transforming the world – beyond any narrow interpretation of the struggle for self-determination.
Öcalan’s writings and the Kurdish struggle have therefore become a source of inspiration for social movements struggling for social justice in many parts of the world. The call for peace is the crowning of this vision. As other times in history, this call comes from a man who is detained since 1999 in a high-security prison, enduring conditions of isolation and deprivation.
It is to be hoped that Öcalan's conditions of detention will be improved in proportion to his contributions to the peace process, and that the Right to Hope—as recently reminded by Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli—will be implemented without delay."
Mezzadra teaches political theory at the University of Bologna. He also serves as a visiting faculty member at the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University and at the Centre for Cultural Research and Development at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. His recent work focuses on the relationships between globalization, migration, and capitalism, as well as contemporary capitalism and postcolonial critique.
Professor of Philology Marta Segarra has also sent a message of support for Mr. Abdullah Öcalan’s Call for Peace and Democratic Society. Her message reads as follows:
"I fully support Abdullah Öcalan's Call for Peace and a Democratic Society made on 27 February 2025. Öcalan, who advocates for a democratic social organisation where culture and language can flourish freely, promises Kurds not just Kurdishness, but life as a whole.
I believe that people have common gestures and expressions that cannot be reduced to any single identity. What else is democracy and peace but making these common gestures and expressions visible? However, commonality is only possible through difference. I am opposed to any form of chauvinism that reduces us to our differences or ignores them. For this reason, I fully support the equal and voluntary union of the Turkish and Kurdish peoples.
As a philologist, I believe that all restrictions on the Kurdish language must be lifted as a necessity of the Peace Process. I stand with your struggle."
Segarra is a research director at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and a senior faculty member in the Gender Studies Department at the University of Barcelona. She is a founding partner and former director (1994–2013) of the Centre Dona i Literatura, and also served as director (2004–2015) of the UNESCO Chair on Women, Development, and Cultures at the University of Barcelona. In addition, she is deputy director of the Laboratoire d’études de genre et de sexualité (LEGS, CNRS, University of Paris 8, University of Paris Nanterre), a member of the CNRS national committee, and a researcher at ADHUC—Research Center for Theory, Gender, and Sexuality. Segarra has published extensively and delivered numerous lectures on women writers, gender, and sexuality studies. She directs the Mujeres y Culturas collection published by Icaria Editorial and serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including Lectora and the Oxford Literary Review.
In addition, Italian Professor Enzo Traverso has shared a message of support regarding the Peace and Democratic Society Process. His message reads as follows:
"The national Kurdish question is at a historic turning point. The PKK’s decision of abandoning armed struggle and self-dissolving to become a major force for socialist transformation claiming democracy and adopting peaceful means of action, was certainly an extremely difficult choice.
I believe the global left should welcome this strategic change and admire the courage and audacity of its members.
A new political process has begun, filled with uncertainties, pitfalls, and unexpected challenges, but all conquest requires courage and audacity. This is the condition for moving forward."
Traverso taught political science for many years at various universities in France. Since 2013, he has served as a professor in the History Department at Cornell University. He is widely recognized for his work on the intellectual and political history of twentieth-century Europe.
29 September 2025