Representatives of the Kurdish community in Armenia today gathered at the Stepan Shahumyan statue in downtown Yerevan and issued a call for Turkish authorities to put an end to what they termed the “senseless violence” against Kurds. They specifically called on Ankara to ameliorate the prison conditions of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, serving a life sentence since 1999 on Imrali Island in the Marmara Sea. It is reported that Turkish prison officials transferred Ocalan to an even smaller prison cell on November 17 not equipped with any lighting. In a statement issued by the Kurdish National Council and the “Kurdistan Committee”, Ocalan is championed as leading the Kurdish freedom struggle. “It is due to Ocalan that the Kurdish people have been able to stand up and defended heir rights and freedoms during the past thirty years that had been usurped and violated by foreign occupiers and dictators.”