Mark Campbell
On 17 April, Turkey launched a new, deadly invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Turkey’s attacks on Kurdish-populated regions of Iraq have used warplanes, drones, ground troops and allegedly banned chemical weapons, killing scores of civilians and depopulating hundreds of villages.
Turkey’s aim is simple: to ethnically cleanse and occupy a 1400km strip of territory through Kurdish-populated regions of Syria and Iraq. Turkey has already built several military bases in Iraq in violation of international law, and occupied thousands of square kilometres in Syria with the help of jihadist militias including many former ISIS members.
For the Kurds and their struggle for democracy and self-determination, this war is now a question of existence – or annihilation.
Western Governments, and the UK in particular, are responsible for this war. Turkey relies on Western technology to conduct deadly airstrikes against the Kurds. Turkey uses its role as NATO’s second-largest army to win support from the West for its existential war against the Kurds.
NATO, the UK and the West are not just silent in the face of Turkey’s violations. They need an authoritarian, capitalist, nationalist bulwark in Erdoğan’s Turkey. They are terrified of the Kurdish movement’s vision of a decentralised, democratic, feminist, egalitarian Middle East.
Only the Kurdish resistance movement stands in the way of annihilation for the Kurdish people, but Western governments continue to ban, imprison and legally harass those working for a free Kurdistan.
As Kurds, their friends and supporters, political parties, trade unions, social movements, and defenders of democracy and justice in the UK, we have a duty to speak up now and hold our government to account over their role in Turkey’s attempted genocide against the Kurds.
We demand the UK halts arms sales to Turkey; pressurises Turkey for an end to the conflict; stops criminalising the Kurdish political movement; and pushes for re-opened peace negotiations.
That is why we’re calling for a major national demonstration on 11 June.
Please join us to mobilise, and fight back against Turkish state fascism and the deafening silence of the UK towards Turkey’s war crimes.
Let’s show the UK government that we won’t be silent any longer.
Saturday 11th June 2022 – 1pm – Meeting at BBC Portland Place – W1A 1AA
Go to kurdishassembly.org or defend-kurdistan.com for more info https://kurdishassembly.org/stop-turkeys-war-defend-kurdistan
