The Iraqi army has reinforced its presence around the Makhmour (Mexmûr) refugee camp with a significant deployment of armed soldiers and armoured vehicles on Saturday, as their attempts to enclose the Makhmour camp with a wire fence, which began on 20 May, persist.
Despite the blockade, the residents of Makhmour have been staging their resistance from their tents for the past nine days, highlighting that the Iraqi army is acting upon pressure from Turkey.
In Europe, expressions of solidarity and support have poured in, with Kurdish activists and their allies gathering in Marseille and Lausanne on Saturday to protest the continued blockade of the camp. In Lausanne, Switzerland, the Revolutionary Youth Movement (TCŞ) and Youth Women Warriors (TekoJIN) led a march demanding the freedom of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan.
Similarly, in Marseille, France, a mass demonstration was organised at Canebiere Square by the Marseille Democratic Kurdish Community Centre (DKTM), denouncing the isolation in İmralı and the blockade on Makhmour camp. In the statement issued by the DKTM Foreign Relations Committee, they emphasised the significance of Makhmour as the birthplace of Öcalan’s visionary ideas, making the attacks on the camp an assault on his ideology.