Kurdish communities and activists living in Switzerland, France and Germany staged protests against Turkey’s military operations that were launched on 9 February to the northeast of Dohuk in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region.
The operations were aimed at surrounding Garê mountain. The protests extended solidarity with the Kurdish people in the targeted region. Following the air strikes by warplanes belonging to Turkey that targeted several villages, clashes in Garê mountain were reported to have intensified on 10 February between the Turkish military forces and the People’s Defence Forces (HPG), the military wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Whilst local sources report that the military mobilisation is still ongoing in the region, Kurdish communities living in Europe took action regarding Turkey’s military operations. Kurdish activists in Switzerland took to the streets in Basel.
In the protest organized by the Rojava Committee in Basel, the activists marched for an hour to condemn the attacks of the Turkish state and appealed for solidarity with the Kurdish people.
Protests also took place in France in Marseilles and Paris. Young Kurdish activists marched from the Belle de Mai square to the city centre of Marseilles chanting slogans condemning Turkey’s Garê offensive. Protests by Kurdish youth organizations also took place in Villiers Le Bel, a suburb of Paris.
Activists from the Revolutionary Youth Movement (Tevgera Ciwanên Şoreşger) and Revolutionary Young Women (TEKO-JIN) marched through the suburb chanting slogans condemning the attacks on Garê mountain.
Kurdish communities and Kurdish activists living in Germany also took to the streets in Cologne and Saarbrucken. “Kurdish people will resist against the Garê offensive with Kobanê’s soul of resistance”, the Saarbrücken protestors noted in their press statement.
