Germany’s The Left Party (Die Linke) passed a resolution against Turkey’s military attacks in North and East Syria and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq at their European party congress in Augsburg on Saturday, calling on the German government to “stop Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan”.
The conference was the first since the departure of The Left’s former co-leader Sarah Wagenknecht and her supporters, who left the party to establish a new political group, centering around what she calls “unchecked migration”, questioning green transition and blaming the West and NATO for the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The Left’s resolution strongly condemns the criminalisation of Kurdish people in Germany and demands that the ban on Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) activities be lifted, saying, “It is a travesty to criminalise an organisation that has contributed to the establishment of a beacon of democracy in Rojava”, also asserting that the ban itself has led to “prohibition of gatherings, and thousands of court cases against Kurdish activists”.
Die Linke also expressed its dissatisfaction with the recent state visit of Turkish President Erdoğan to Germany. They accused the Turkish president of supporting “Islamic terrorist militias” and suppressing the democratic opposition in Turkey, while violating international law by continuously bombing the Kurdish civilian population in northern Iraq and northern Syria,and they criticised the alleged role of German arms suppliers in facilitating these attacks. They demanded an immediate cessation of all weapons deliveries to Turkey.
