The Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) calls for international support for earthquake victims via donating to the Kurdish Red Moon (Heyva Sor a Kurdistanê), a Kurdish charity efficiently providing relief to those in need throughout Kurdish areas affected by wars and natural disasters.
International aid may not end up benefiting the peoples of the affected areas, which are home to a diverse population including Kurds, Turks, Arabs, and others, said the KNK on Friday, noting that all aid provided through Turkey is directly under the control of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
“The Kurdish majority regions in eastern Turkey have remained underdeveloped, and have been destroyed and plundered by the Turkish state, and we do not expect Turkish President [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan and his AKP regime, who have brutalised the peoples of this region, to change their priorities when responding to this natural disaster,” said the KNK.
“Similarly, the people of the southern province of Hatay, who are 80-90% Arab Alawite, face systemic discrimination under the AKP government, and many have been struggling for days without electricity, water, and hygienic supplies, and have been left alone to try to find their relatives in rubble and pull them out to safety.”
The Congress also stated that the Syrian government has imposed a suffocating siege on various Kurdish-majority areas including the Shahba region in the Aleppo Governorate and the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiya neighbourhoods in the city of Aleppo for the last five years, and tightened it over the last five months.
Meanwhile, Turkey and Turkish-backed Syrian militias continue to obstruct the arrival of aid prepared by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) for the affected areas, according to the KNK.
The KNK called on the United Nations, the European Union, the United States, and the international community to work to end blockades against the earthquake regions, recalling the urgent need for all border gates leading into northern Syria, especially the Tel Kocher Border Gate, to be opened to prevent further loss of life.
