(This solidarity message was sent by the Italian Nobel Prize Winner for Literature, Dario Fo, and his wife Franca Rame to the delegates of the "Musa Anter Peace Train" standing trial in Istanbul.)

Kurdistan lives. It was denied, divided, and colonized for over seventy years by the European powers; this was clearly documented by the sociologist Ismail Besikci and for that he was jailed for life.

Kurdistan lives. It has its own language, culture, and history; this was clearly stated by Leyla Zana and that is why she was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.

Kurdistan lives. It burns in the mind of every single person of the 35 million people who were robbed of their identity and made into refugees in Turkey, Iraq, and Europe. It is burning and living in the fires of Newroz, in the jails where 12,000 political prisoners are buried in isolation cells, it lives in the memory of those who disappeared and in the scars of those who were tortured. It is burning and living in the mountains of popular resistance, called terrorism by the western world.

We express our solidarity with the victims of repression in Turkey, Iraq, and Iran, and for the European, Turkish, and Kurdish people who are on trial and in prisons, who show the same resolve and commitment as us.

Palermo, November 5, 1997

(Source: AKIN)