Protest calls on US to stop supporting Turkey鈥檚 massacre of Kurds

May 18, 2021
Issue 
Protesting Turkey's war on South Kurdistan/northern Iraq. Photo: Peter Boyle

A protest at Sydney Town Hall on May 16 called on the US President Joe Biden to break from the reactionary policies of the previous Donald Trump administration and stop supporting Turkey's massacre of Kurds.

Gule Rose, co-chair of the Democratic Kurdish Community Centre (NSW), the protest organisers, said that after Biden鈥檚 phone call with Turkish dictator Recep Tayyip Erdo臒an on April 23, the Turkish army launched an invasion into Iraqi territory with air and ground attacks on the Metine, Zap and Avashin areas in northern Iraq (Southern Kurdistan).

鈥淭he US and the European Union are implicated in Turkey鈥檚 state terrorism, through supporting the Turkish government鈥檚 implementation of a border regime on the lands of minority populations, such as the Kurds,鈥 she said.

鈥淭hese inhumane attacks have been normalised over several decades 鈥 they have led to consistent and violent instability in the region. With US and EU support, the Turkish state uses the Syrian and Iraqi airspace as it wishes, invades the lands of its neighbours and commits inhumane acts and violations outside its borders.鈥

The Trump administration had approved the Erdo臒an government鈥檚 invasion of Rojava, Shengal, Makhmur and the whole of SouthernKurdistan and now the Biden administration is doing the same.

When US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Palmar visited Ankara in 2018, he announced that the US would offer聽a US$12 million bounty for information on the location of three senior Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) members Cem卯l Bayik, Mirad Qaray卯lan and Duran Kalkan.

On April 14, the US Ambassador to Turkey, David Satterfield, affirmed this bounty.

The US, European Union and Australia still list the PKK as a 鈥渢errorist鈥 organisation even though it is clear that the Turkish state and the jihadi militia groups it supports in the region are the real terrorists.

鈥淐alling politicians fighting for the freedom and well-being of the Kurdish people 鈥榯errorists鈥 and providing financial rewards for their murder is an immoral incentive against human dignity. This incentive supports the Turkish state鈥檚 war crimes and human rights violations inside and outside the country,鈥 Rose said.

A representative of the Tamil Council of Australia, Johnny Dennis, also addressed the rally and expressed solidarity with the Kurdish liberation struggle.

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