The escalating violence committed against the Kurdish people claimed a family of seven in Konya, central Anatolia. The family was killed in their home, shot through the head. This is the latest in a series of racist attacks and murders of Kurds in Turkey. It conforms with a pattern of escalating violence directed and encouraged by the Turkish state. This sequence includes Operation Claw Lightning, when the Turkish Army invaded northern Iraq/South Kurdistan on 23 April 2021, the anniversary of the start in 1915 of the Armenian genocide committed by Ottoman Empire, when 1.5 million people were killed, followed by the murder of Deniz Poyraz in the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) offices in Izmir on 17 June.
Turkish authorities have dismissed the mass murder in Konya as if it were the result of an intra-family dispute. Turkish police have attacked people protesting against the rising number of murders of Kurds in Turkey. The AKP/MHP government is encouraging racism and violent attacks. It does so with rhetoric and actions in a context of mounting political crisis for the government. The outcome of the course the Turkish government is taking could be socially and politically explosive.
The British, European and US governments have failed to condemn President Erdogan and his government’s criminalisation of all expressions of Kurdish cultural and political aspirations. They have failed to condemn Turkey for its illegal treatment of Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurds, isolated in a Turkish gaol. They have failed to condemn the intended banning of the HDP, Turkey’s third largest parliamentary party. They have refused to stop arming a Turkish state that is killing Kurds in Turkey, Iraq and Syria and wherever else it can find them. This is encouraging the descent into barbarism and the British, European and US governments are culpable. All democratic and civilised people must make their voices heard in protest and begin to act. Stop the murderous Turkish state.
1 August 2021
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, Maggie Cook, UNISON women activist; 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, Bert Schouwenburg, International Trade Union Adviser; 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.