On 16 March, the the Kurdish people commemorated the anniversary of the Halabja Genocide in 1988, in which more than 5,000 Kurds were killed in air strikes in Northern Iraq using chemical weapons. On the same day, a summary report on the recent conference in the European Parliament called “Remembering the Halabja Genocide and the Use of Chemical Weapons Against Kurds” was published, which we have made available to download here (doc). You can also see the final declaration that was adopted by the conference participants below:
The participants of the conference have adopted the following Final Declaration
(Brussels, 8th of March, 2012)
Our conference recognized that the most well known of the genocides against the Kurdish people was the genocide carried out by Saddam’s regime in Halabja in 1988. However, it was also said that the Kurds are currently facing policies of genocide on a daily basis.
Our conference has determined that the genocides suffered by the Kurdish people have derived from the denial and annihilation policies of the sovereign states under which the Kurds are living.
Our conference has inferred that these genocides have at times been carried out with the direct or indirect support of European states by overriding their own democratic values; therefore, the approach of EU states and international organizations to the Kurdish question has been condemned. It has been called upon the EU states and international organizations to cease helping these states on grounds of historical and democratic norms.
Our conference is calling on international organizations to officially recognize the Halabja massacre as genocide and move to ensure that the undertakers of the Roboski massacre will be held responsible and brought to account for their actions.
Our demands to the EU, international organizations and Iraqi authorities regarding Halabja:
- We call upon the EU and UN to formally recognize these crimes as genocide.
- To be against any policy that may lead to a repeat of such crimes against the Kurdish nation or any other nation.
- We call upon the Iraqi government to materially compensate the victims and the Kurdish nation. At the same time the Iraqi government should ensure a minute silence for the remembrance of the Halabja Genocide every year on the 16th of March.
- European Parliament needs to work on requesting the Iraqi government to provide an official apology to the Kurdish nation and undertake steps for such action.
- The EU governments need to cooperate with the Iraqi government and the KRG – who have already officially accepted Halabja as genocide – for international recognition of crimes against Kurds as genocide and through various policies to support the Kurdish identity in the neighbouring countries where Kurds live.
- We call upon the European Parliament to work for recognizing the 16th of March as an international day against chemical weapons and mass destruction
Our demands to the EU and international organizations regarding Roboski:
On the 28th of December 2011 between the hours of 21:30-22:30 Turkish Fighter Jets bombed a group of civilians in the village of Roboski, Sirnak, who were on their way back having earlier crossed the border into Iraq. As a result of this bombardment a total of 35 civilians of which 17 were children tragically lost their lives, 1 person was injured and 2 people escaped with no injuries. Although the massacre occurred 71 days ago the fact that the details of the massacre have not been fully disclosed shows that the state have played a part in this massacre.
At this present time we are no longer discussing the reality of the massacre, but rather, by who and why this massacre was carried out?
As a result of this attack 35 people’s right to life was taken from them. This, without a doubt, carries this message: if you do not accept the denial and annihilation policies of the Turkish state you will be annihilated.
We demand that the Turkish state finds the people responsible for this massacre and demand that international organizations investigate the incident and make sure the people responsible are brought to justice.
In accordance:
1- We demand that this attack is acknowledged as an extrajudicial killing and due to the numbers killed should be accepted as a mass killing.
2- That this is a continuation of the extrajudicial killings carried out under the name of “struggle against Terror”.
3- That the insistence of force in the solution of the Kurdish question forms the basis of such dark acts of violence, and so the UN and EU should pressurize Turkey to adopt a more peaceful and democratic approach for the solution of the Kurdish question.
4- For national and international civil society organizations to show awareness by investigating further.
5- Finally, we call upon the human rights committees of the UN, EC and EU to send delegations to the region for full investigation
(end)