KURDISH NEWS BRIEFING, 5 August 2021 – 6 September 2021
For all of the latest Kurdish news, see these sources:
ANF English: https://anfenglishmobile.com/
Hawar News: https://www.hawarnews.com/en/
Rojava Information Center: https://rojavainformationcenter.com
Women Defend Rojava: http://womendefendrojava.net/en/
Rojhelat: http://rojhelat.info/en/
Rojava Centre for Strategic Studies: http://nrlsrojava.com/en/
Komun Academy: https://komun-academy.com
Peoples’ Democratic Party: https://www.hdp.org.tr/en/
KCK-Kurdistan Democratic Communities Union: https://kck-info.com
NEWS
- Turkish jets bomb Kurdish village with chemical weapons amid calls for war crimes investigations
- Turkey accused of war crimes in second attack on UN-administered refugee camp
- Turkey has no hesitation about buying more S-400 missiles, Erdoğan says
- Kurdish, French presidents discuss broadening ties in Erbil meeting
- APPG Report: ‘Terrorist’ definition of PKK should be reviewed
- Afghan and Kurdish women revolutionaries urge joined up global resistance
- Ilham Ehmed: Al-Assad’s declarations new but need deep discussion
- Karayılan: The Turkish army is bogged down
- Turkey accused of deliberately preventing Yazidis from returning to northern Iraq
- PKK: 38th year of struggle will be a year of greater achievements!
- Syrian Kurds open representation office in Geneva
- President Barzani meets Iran’s Raisi
- Calls for international recognition of semi-autonomous Kurdish enclave from controversial US religious rights body raise eyebrows
OPINION, COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS
- ‘Desert’: drying Euphrates threatens disaster in Syria
- Turkey’s targeted killings signal new strategy against Syrian Kurdish forces
- Turkey exploits Afghanistan situation to attack Rojava: analyst
- The opening of a Syrian Kurdish ‘representation office’ in Geneva stirs tensions
- Kurdish voters’ choice will determine the outcome of next election, says Demirtaş
- Water crisis and drought threaten more than 12 million in Syria and Iraq
- Turkey sees Afghanistan as lever for global agenda – analysis
- Saleh Muslim: If war stopped, Turkish state would collapse
- Will the US abandon Iraqi, Syrian Kurds?
- Burning forests and burning coal: Turkey’s climate conundrum
- Sleeper-Cell Report: Record Low of Attacks in July
- The Liberation of Kabul
- ‘We Fell Off the Face of the Earth’
- Iraqi Kurdistan party at a crossroad
- Turkey is building new ships, tanks, and missiles to boost its military and send a message to the rest of NATO
- Why a Turkish dictator let himself lose an election
- Violence down in Syria’s al-Hol camp but conditions remain ‘horrifying’
- Turkish Wildfires Turn Up Pressure on Erdogan
MULTIMEDIA
- (VIDEO) August 09, 2021: Interview with Mustafa Karasu
- (VIDEO) Lloyd Russell-Moyle MP on New APPG Report on Kurdish Political Representation and Equality in Turkey
STATEMENTS
- No Free Êzidîxan Without Resistance!
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NEWS
- Turkish jets bomb Kurdish village with chemical weapons amid calls for war crimes investigations
5 September 2021|Morning Star
Turkish war planes have bombed a Kurdish village in Iraqi Kurdistan with chemical weapons, local officials told the Morning Star, demanding that war-crime investigations be opened. Health officials said they had treated three residents for the effects of toxic gas, with symptoms including shortness of breath, an irregular heartbeat and blurred vision. Resident Cihad Hirure said that Turkish fighter jets had bombed the village: “A white chemical gas has spread many kilometres wide in the area. We think that this was a chemical bomb.”
- Turkey accused of war crimes in second attack on UN-administered refugee camp
3 September 2021|Morning Star
Turkey was again accused of war crimes today after carrying out fresh air strikes on the United Nations-administered Makhmour refugee camp in northern Iraq. “There was no loss of life in the drone attack on Makhmour and the bomb dropped in the garden of a house” the official said. Today’s attack was the second time that Turkish have hit the camp in the space of a few months, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claiming that it was “an incubator of terrorism” due to residents’ support for the Kurdistan Workers Party. In June, Erdogan issued a chilling threat, saying that if the UN did not “clean it up, we will do it as a UN member.” Days later, Turkish air strikes killed three civilians in the camp, which lies in a contested area between Iraqi federal government territory and that of the Kurdistan Regional Government, 112 miles from the border with Turkey.
- Turkey has no hesitation about buying more S-400 missiles, Erdoğan says
30 August 2021|Ahval
Turkey is not pulling back from buying more S-400 air defence missiles from Russia, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Sunday, according to the Akşam newspaper. “We don’t have any hesitation about Russia, the purchase of the second batch (of S-400s), and so on” Erdoğan told reporters .“We are making many steps with Russia, whether it be on the S-400 issue or the defence industry.”
- Kurdish, French presidents discuss broadening ties in Erbil meeting
29 August 2021|Rudaw
The Kurdish and French presidents emphasized the importance of Kurdish-French historical relations and advancing those ties when they met in Erbil on Sunday, the second day of Emmanuel Macron’s two-day visit to Iraq. “I can say that today our relations are much stronger” Macron said, noting French forces fought the Islamic State group alongside Kurds in both Iraq and Syria. The people of France “value this historic relationship,” he said, promising continued support in the war on ISIS.
https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/290820213
- APPG Report: ‘Terrorist’ definition of PKK should be reviewed
28 August 2021|ANF English
The UK Parliament’s All Party Parliamentary Group on Kurdistan in Syria and Turkey published a report called “Kurdish Political Representation and Equality in Turkey”. The treatment of the Kurdish population and of elected representatives is one of the greatest threats to democracy in Turkey and the wider region, said the report in its introduction adding that “repression of elected representatives from the pro-Kurdish HDP party includes actions such as removal from office, bringing charges of terrorism-based offences, and imprisonment and torture has now started to expand to CHP (the centre-left party that founded modern Turkey).” The APPG also said that the British government should review the definition of “terrorist” given to the PKK in the light of the decision by Belgium’s court which determined that the PKK is a be party to an armed conflict and not a terrorist organization.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/news/appg-report-terrorist-definition-of-pkk-should-be-reviewed-54493
- Afghan and Kurdish women revolutionaries urge joined up global resistance
28 August 2021|The Canary
Afghan women revolutionaries have come out fighting. And they’re calling for international solidarity and resistance against the Taliban and IS-K. And their Kurdish sisters, with their vast experience of combatting Daesh (ISIS/ISIL) and its Turkish backers, have issued a similar call.
- Ilham Ehmed: Al-Assad’s declarations new but need deep discussion
20 August 2021| ANF English
Recently, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad said that “Syria will not go back to before 2011. Syria can be governed by a decentralized administration.” Ilham Ehmed, co-chair of the executive council of the Syrian Democratic Council, said “We’ve been saying this for years. But where Syria will go is an important question. Identifying the problem correctly is half of the solution. Answering this correctly completes the solution to the problem. The regime has always said that Syria will remain the same as before. For the first time, the President changed this discourse and said that Syria cannot be governed by the pre-2011 system. He actually added that it can be governed by a decentralized system.”
- Karayılan: The Turkish army is bogged down
21 August 2021|ANF English
According to Murat Karayılan of the PKK’s Executive Council, the Turkish army is completely bogged down in Southern Kurdistan. “For three and a half months, the enemy has not succeeded in advancing against us with the greatest use of technology and dirty war methods. This is not an ordinary situation. Despite a whole range of means provided by NATO to the Turkish state, the Turkish army is in a deadlock in the regions it has invaded with the aim of occupation. It is effectively defeated”, Karayılan said.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/features/karayilan-the-turkish-army-is-bogged-down-54314
- Turkey accused of deliberately preventing Yazidis from returning to northern Iraq
17 August 2021|Morning Star
Turkey has been accused of deliberately preventing the return of Yazidi people to their Shengal homeland in northern Iraq after three people were killed in an air strike on a busy marketplace on Monday. The Shengal resistance units (YBS), the reported target of the attack, accused the Turkish state of continuing its attempted genocide of the Yazidi people and their right to self-governance.
- PKK: 38th year of struggle will be a year of greater achievements!
13 August 2021|ANF News
During the PKK’s second party Congress, which was held from 20 to 25 August 1982 in Daraa Syria, it was decided that the PKK would start preparing for an insurgency inside Turkey. Training camps were opened in Syria and in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley and propaganda teams were sent across the border to contact the local population. After years of preparation the PKK launched its first major attacks on 15 August 1984. The attack was led by the founder of the PKK’s military wing .
- Syrian Kurds open representation office in Geneva
8 August 2021|Rudaw
The Syrian Kurdish administration on Monday opened an office in Geneva, Switzerland, home to many headquarters of United Nations bodies, where it plans to push for support to end human rights abuses in areas of Syria controlled by Turkey. “In an effort to develop our relations with European countries, our next step was to open a representative for the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria in Switzerland because of its great importance and a key presence in the Syrian file” the foreign office of the Rojava administration announced.
https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/09082021
- President Barzani meets Iran’s Raisi
8 August 2021|Rudaw
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani met Iran’s new president, Ebrahim Raisi, in Tehran on Friday morning. The two discussed Iran’s ties with Iraq and “their historical relations with the Region,” according to a statement from Kurdistan Region’s presidency. They reaffirmed the importance of developing trade, as well as preserving the security and safety of their shared border and the region in general, the statement added.
https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/06082021
- Calls for international recognition of semi-autonomous Kurdish enclave from controversial US religious rights body raise eyebrows
8 August 2021|Morning Star
Nadine Maenza, the chair of the the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, has said the Autonomous Area of North East Syria should be exempted from the US Caesar sanctions on Syria, calling for the body to be recognised by the international community as a local government while praising its progressive politics on gender and religious tolerance. Her stance, which she has voiced on a number of occasions, and its uncritical endorsement by Kurdish officials, has raised eyebrows given her promotion of reactionary positions on LGBT, women’s rights and other issues.
OPINION, COMMENTARY, ANALYSIS
- ‘Desert’: drying Euphrates threatens disaster in Syria
30 August 2021|AFP via Rudaw
Syria’s longest river used to flow by his olive grove, but today Khaled al-Khamees says it has receded into the distance, parching his trees and leaving his family with hardly a drop to drink. “It’s as if we were in the desert,” said the 50-year-old farmer, standing on what last year was the Euphrates riverbed. “We’re thinking of leaving because there’s no water left to drink or irrigate the trees.”
https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/30082021
- Turkey’s targeted killings signal new strategy against Syrian Kurdish forces
27 August 2021|Al-Monitor
Breaking a long lull in its military campaign against Kurdish forces in northeast Syria, Turkey has launched a series of drone strikes targeting high-profile members of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), apparently with quiet nods from Russia and the United States. The YPG lost around two dozen members, including senior figures, in about 20 drone strikes that hit YPG targets last week, including vehicles carrying military commanders, meeting places and command centers.
- Turkey exploits Afghanistan situation to attack Rojava: analyst
26 August 2021|Rudaw
The United States needs Turkey in Afghanistan and Ankara has exploited the situation to increase its attacks on Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria (Rojava), according to an analyst. Ankara has recently carried out a series of deadly attacks in areas covered by 2019 ceasefires brokered by the US and Russia, targeting senior Kurdish fighters who are parts of forces allied with the US-led coalition. Soner Cagaptay, senior fellow at the Washington Institute, told Rudaw English that the fact that Turkey has helped maintain security at Hamid Karzai Airport in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul has put Washington in a spot and paved the way for Ankara to increase its attacks against the People’s Protection Units, which is the backbone of the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces, as part of its military campaign against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
https://www.rudaw.net/english/analysis/26082021
- The opening of a Syrian Kurdish ‘representation office’ in Geneva stirs tensions
25 August 2021|SWI Swissinfo.ch
The autonomous entity in north-eastern Syria, unrecognised by any state, is seeking to build relations with international players in Geneva – where Syrian peace talks, from which it is excluded, are taking place. Turkey is furious, while Switzerland is embarrassed.
- Kurdish voters’ choice will determine the outcome of next election, says Demirtaş
25 August 2021|Bianet
The HDP is facing closure because of its alleged ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party as the Constitutional Court accepted an indictment in June. Also, some 108 members of the party, including the party’s imprisoned former co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş and other senior figures, are facing life sentences for allegedly organizing the deadly “Kobanî protests” in Kurdish-majority provinces in 2014. Neither case has anything to do with law, Demirtaş told Medyascope in a written interview. If the HDP politicians receive sentences and the party is closed, it will shape the political developments, he said. “In such a case, it will be 100 percent clear that the AKP [the ruling Justice and Development Party] will lose.
- Water crisis and drought threaten more than 12 million in Syria and Iraq
23 August 2021|Reliefweb
More than 12 million people in Syria and Iraq are losing access to water, food and electricity and urgent action is needed to combat a severe water crisis, 13 aid groups working in the region warn today. Across the region, rising temperatures, record low levels of rainfall, and drought are depriving people of drinking and agricultural water. It is also disrupting electricity as dams run out of water, which in turn impacts the operations of essential infrastructure including health facilities. Higher temperatures caused by climate change increase the risks and severity of droughts.
- Turkey sees Afghanistan as lever for global agenda – analysis
22 August 2021|The Jerusalem Post
Ankara is pursuing both its Islamic and pragmatic geopolitical agendas in Kabul. Despite its concerns, it sees the Taliban win as a boost for its global aspirations. Turkey is desperate to find a way to work with the Taliban and get control of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport.
It has several agendas. It wants to control Afghanistan as a key route to China and Iran and also to sit astride global jihadist moments from Idlib to Kabul so that it can use them for its own agenda to become an Islamic world leader.
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/turkey-sees-afghanistan-as-lever-for-global-agenda-analysis-677405
- Saleh Muslim: If war stopped, Turkish state would collapse
22 August 2021|ANHA Hawar News Agency
Member of the co- chairmanship of the Democratic Union Party, the PYD, Saleh Muslim, spoke to ANHA agency about Turkish state attacks on Shengal and North and East Syria, and the silence of the Iraqi Government and international forces. “This attack took place on the anniversary of the Shengal massacre, on the anniversary of the August 15th, and on the anniversary of the martyrdom of Mam Zaki. The Turkish state insists on implementing what ISIS has not been able to do. It was aimed at exterminating the Kurds and the vanguard, and undoubtedly the execution of this attack on August 15th is a message to the Kurdish people in general”.
- Will the US abandon Iraqi, Syrian Kurds?
21 August 2021|Rudaw
With the passage of time, Kurds have continued to rely on and develop their relations with the US. However, America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s lightning offensive across the country and seizure of Kabul reminded Kurds of 2017 and 2019. Dramatic scenes of Afghans risking their lives at Kabul airport to escape the country sparked fears among many Kurds that Rojava or the Kurdistan Region could be the next Afghanistan.
https://www.rudaw.net/english/analysis/21082021
- Burning forests and burning coal: Turkey’s climate conundrum
20 August 2021|AlJazeera
The forest fires that raged across the Mediterranean for the past few weeks have brought levels of devastation to the Southern coast of Turkey not seen in decades. With almost 300 blazes and a total scorched area that is nine times the average of previous years, the blazes initially overwhelmed Turkish firefighters, and offers of support came flooding in from near and far.
- Sleeper-Cell Report: Record Low of Attacks in July
16 August 2021|Rojava Information Center
12 sleeper cell attacks were documented, marking a record low since RIC reporting began, and a 50% decrease as compared to the month of June. 9 attacks were claimed by ISIS, as compared to 15 in June. The attacks caused 8 deaths and include one attack by a SAR-related cell in al-Tay neighborhood of Qamishlo, injuring 2. Hol Camp has seen 4 attacks, killing 4 people, and 4 raids leading to 15 arrests. 7 the 12 sleeper cell attacks happened in Deir ez-Zor. 4 others were carried out in Raqqa and one attack happened in Qamishlo, in the Jazeera region. As usual, most attacks border the Euphrates river between Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor countryside, the area where sleeper cells are most present and active.
https://rojavainformationcenter.com/2021/08/sleeper-cell-report-record-low-of-attacks-in-july/
- The Liberation of Kabul
16 August 2021|ANF English
“Who will liberate Afghanistan? After 20 years of NATO occupation, the country is likely to be back under Taliban rule for the time being,” writes Firaz Amargi. “The social, cultural and human destruction of the last two decades and the foreseeable Taliban horror are largely commented on in the Western public with surprise and hopelessness. Yet the peoples of Afghanistan – whether in the country itself or in the diaspora – are once again urgently faced with the question of how they can free their homeland from the yoke of Western military alliances or Islamist rulers”.
https://anfenglishmobile.com/features/the-liberation-of-kabul-54196
- ‘We Fell Off the Face of the Earth’
8 August 2021|Foreign Policy
Opposition politicians are disappearing into Turkey’s massive new prison system. For years, he has been one of Turkey’s most outspoken human rights advocates, taking to the floor of parliament and social media with tales of abuse, torture, and midnight arrests at the hands of the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But just after midnight on April 2, Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu, a member of parliament for the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), found that it was his turn. The police were waiting at his door, arrest warrant in hand. “It started politely, but soon we found ourselves screaming as the police dragged our father away,” Faruk’s son, Salih Gergerlioglu, told me in April. “Suddenly he was gone”.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/08/08/turkey-prison-complex-erdogan/
- Iraqi Kurdistan party at a crossroad
7 August 2021|The Jerusalem Post
The existence and stability of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) depends on the relationship between the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). It is essentially a confederacy between the two. However, since the absence of its charismatic leader, the PUK’s authority has disintegrated, and the party is in disarray. Lahur Talabani emerged as the de-facto leader of the PUK with personal politics based on hatred towards the KDP – threatening the KRI’s unity. Talabani maintained good relations with the United States and ostensibly distanced himself from Iran, the Kurdish Counterterrorism Group was allegedly involved in killing Qasem Soleimani. However, Talabani’s cousin, Bafel Talabani, ousted him, a move Talabani called a coup. Talabani was accused of abusing his power according to the PUK leaders and commanders I spoke with.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/iraqi-kurdistan-party-at-a-crossroad-676098
- Turkey is building new ships, tanks, and missiles to boost its military and send a message to the rest of NATO
6 August 2021|Business Insider
In June, the Turkish navy successfully test-fired the Atmaca, Turkey’s first domestically produced long-range anti-ship cruise missile. In its final test, the missile sank an old research vessel, and it is now set to replace the US-made Harpoon as the Turkish Navy’s standard anti-ship missile. It is the most recent in an impressive string of achievements for Turkey’s defense industry, which has historically relied on US and European companies to outfit its military. In recent years, though, Turkish firms have increased their efforts to manufacture high-quality defense equipment — including guns, missiles, tanks, and warships.
- Why a Turkish dictator let himself lose an election
6 August 2021|Al-Monitor
Would President Recep Tayyip Erdogan actually allow himself to lose an election? And could pressure from Turkey’s Western allies help ensure that he does? These are two of the most pressing questions confronting Turkish political commentators in the years leading up to Turkey’s 2023 presidential elections. In 1950, just a decade or so after he inherited uncontested authoritarian rule from Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkish President Ismet Inonu beat back opposition within his own government to hold free, multiparty elections. He expected to win. When he didn’t, he dismissed offers from his security services to reverse the result and simply stepped down.
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/08/why-turkish-dictator-let-himself-lose-election
- Violence down in Syria’s al-Hol camp but conditions remain ‘horrifying’
5 August 2021|Al-Monitor
A five-day raid that targeted Islamic State members inside northeast Syria’s sprawling al-Hol detention camp in March appears to have led to a reduction in killings there, the US military reported. The raid led to the arrest of 125 people in the camp, including what security forces there say was a five-member assassination squad of Iraqi men believed to have been involved in a series of grisly murders in the camp. Yet US CENTCOM assessed that the lull in violence may only be temporary, as an uptick of eight murders were recorded in the camp in June alone, according to a new report released by the Pentagon’s inspector general.
- Turkish Wildfires Turn Up Pressure on Erdogan
5 August 2021|Bloomberg
A natural disaster can hand leaders an opportunity to roll up their sleeves and marshal a response, reassure citizens and act in a statesmanlike manner. Or it can morph into a political crisis. For President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the wildfires engulfing parts of Turkey’s southern coast for more than a week risk turning into the latter. The government has drawn criticism for equipment that is poorly maintained or lacking, with the sense its response has been slow and chaotic. That’s in contrast to actions from neighboring countries to confront the fires ripping through the region. The danger for Erdogan is the fallout lands on his own shoulders. He has coalesced the state around himself in recent years, acquiring additional powers.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2021-08-05/turkish-wildfires-turn-up-pressure-on-erdogan
MULTIMEDIA
- (VIDEO) August 09, 2021: Interview with Mustafa Karasu
Parts of an interview with Mustafa Karasu, member of the KCK Executive Council. Mustafa Karasu talks about the current attempts of the KDP to provoke a war with the PKK in South Kurdistan, the EU`s responsibility for the ongoing isolation of Abdullah Öcalan, the forest fires in Turkey and the significance of the guerrilla offensive on August 15, 1984.
- (VIDEO) Lloyd Russell-Moyle MP on New APPG Report on Kurdish Political Representation and Equality in Turkey
Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Labour MP and the Chair of the UK’s All Party Parliamentary Group on Syria and Turkey was interviewed by journalist Erem Kansoy. The APPG in Syria and Turkey has conducted an inquiry into ‘Kurdish Political Representation and Equality in Turkey’. It is the strong position of the APPG that the treatment of the Kurdish population and of elected representatives is one of the greatest threats to democracy in Turkey and the wider region. Repression of elected representatives from the pro-Kurdish HDP party includes actions such as removal from office, bringing charges of terrorism-based offences, and policies of imprisonment and torture has now started to expand to CHP (the centre-left party that founded modern Turkey). The APPG has agreed on 32 recommendations for the UK Government, including that the UK ban of the PKK as a terrorist group be reconsidered. The APPG has written to the Foreign Secretary seeking a response. The interview was prepared with the support of the Freedom for Ocalan Campaign and the Peace in Kurdistan campaign in collaboration with Medya Haber TV and Sterk TV.
STATEMENTS
- No Free Êzidîxan Without Resistance!
18 August 2021| KCK Executive Council
The Turkish state has proven that it is an ally of the Islamic State (IS) through its renewed attacks on Sinjar. Its fighter jets bombed the car in which Seid Hesen was in, an Ezidi leader who fought against the IS attacks at the forefront thus putting an end to the genocidal attacks of the IS. In this attack, Seid Hesen, a leader of the Ezidi people, and the YBŞ fighter (resistance units Şengals) Îsa Xwededa fell as martyrs. We express our condolences to their families and the entire Ezidi people. At the same time, we firmly believe that they will make their common dream – a free and autonomous Êzidîxan – a reality.
https://kck-info.com/statement-aug1821/
Peace in Kurdistan
Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question
Email: estella@gn.apc.org
https://www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peaceinkurdistan1/
Contacts Estella Schmid: 07846 666 804 & Melanie Gingell: 07572 430903
Patrons: John Austin, Baroness Blower of Starch Green, former GS NUT, Prof Bill Bowring, Julie Christie, Noam Chomsky, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Prof Mary Davis, Lord Dholakia, Simon Dubbins, UNITE International Director, Jill Evans, former MEP, Desmond Fernandes, Lindsey German, Convenor STWC, Melanie Gingell, Christopher Gingell, Prof Dr. Michael Gunter, Secretary-General, EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC), Rahila Gupta, journalist, Nick Hildyard, policy advisor, Dafydd Iwan, Former President Plaid Cymru, James Kelman, Bruce Kent, Jean Lambert, former MEP, Dr Les Levidow, Open University, Elfyn Llwyd, John McDonnell MP; Aonghas MacNeacail, Scottish Gaelic poet, Mike Mansfield QC, David Morgan, journalist, Doug Nicholls, General Secretary, GFTU, Dr. Jessica Ayesha Northey, Sinn Fein MLA Conor Murphy, Dr Thomas Jeffrey Miley, Kate Osamor MP, Margaret Owen OBE, Ali Gul Ozbek, Former Councillor and Mayor of Haringey; Gareth Peirce, Dr Felix Padel, Maxine Peake, actor, Dr Thomas Phillips, Liverpool John Moores University, Trevor Rayne, writer, Joe Ryan, Tony Simpson, Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, Stephen Smellie, PIK Trade Union Liaison Officer, Jonathan Steele, journalist, Steve Sweeney, journalist, Gianni Tognoni, General Secretary Permanent People’s Tribunal, Dr Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Dr Federico Venturini, Associate Researcher, University of Udine, Italy; Dr Tom Wakeford, Dr Derek Wall, Julie Ward, former MEP, Kariane Westrheim, Chair, EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC); Hywel Williams MP.