NEWS CENTER – Today in Europe many cities are taking actions by blockading party offices and turkish consulates against the use of chemical weapons by the turkish fascist state and the silence of the internationalist community towards it.
ROME
This morning, December 2nd, sanctions were imposed on the cultural office of the Turkish Embassy in Rome’s Piazza della Repubblica. During the action, smoke was lit to protest against the Turkish regime’s cowardly attack on the population of Rojava with illegal chemical weapons. The Italian Friends of Kurdish Society declared: “We call for mobilization to inform the public about the war crimes of the Turkish fascist state!”
“AGAINST THE USE OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS BY TURKEY – YOUR SILENCE KILLS!
Since November 19, 2022, Turkey has been relentlessly bombing Rojava (Northeast Syria) and Başur (Iraqi Kurdistan), hitting civilian infrastructure to cut off any supplies to the population.
We remember Kobanê as the city that defeated the Islamic State with its combined resistance of women and men. The YPG and YPJ Women’s People’s Protection Units have become a symbol of freedom and democracy for the whole world. Now we have forgotten and forgotten how important it is to defend this democratic model. It is time to take action and learn about the atrocities committed by Sultan Erdogan in the Autonomous Administration areas.
In addition to war planes and UAV drones, the remote-controlled aircraft, Turkey also uses chemical weapons in the bombings that take the lives of so many people. These types of weapons cause horrific deaths and their use is banned by the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, drawn up by no fewer than 194 countries.
On October 26, Şebnem Korur Fincancı, chairwoman of the Central Council of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), was arrested in Ankara just days after she said chemical weapons attacks by the Turkish state should be investigated. In Diyarbakir prison in Turkish Kurdistan, three prisoners went on a hunger strike to protest the use of these weapons.
In addition, Turkey itself admits to the use of chemical weapons. Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar has openly admitted in the Turkish parliament that illegal tear gas was used in a military operation against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) in northern Iraq. The IPPNW (International Organization of Physicists for the Prevention of Nuclear Weapons) has conducted investigations into this situation, but unfortunately, due to the outlawing of the nation states involved, it is always very difficult to gain access to the sites where the attacks were carried out. So far we know that white phosphorus, nerve gas and chlorine are used.
We must face these massacres and face what is happening without closing our eyes. Erdogan is a mass murderer, a greedy, bloodthirsty dictator, not the savior that the media portrays in relation to the war in Ukraine.”
COLOGNE
A spontaneous demonstration is also taking place in front of the Turkish consulate in Cologne. The police are on site and are attacking the internationalist activists. As reported by eyewitnesses on the spot, the police are arresting people and taking their IDs.
More information to follow…
BERLIN
Internationalist activists are currently blocking the party headquarters of the party “Die Grünen” in Berlin. The activists demand an investigation into the chemical weapons attacks in southern Kurdistan by the Turkish occupying state and an end to the attacks on Rojava.
The police are already on site and are said to have arrested one person. It is said that half of the group is being held by the police and that the action in front of the party headquarters has already ended in conversation with a Green Party employee.
DÜSSELDORF
The activists have prepared a speech to be delivered to members of the Green Party to draw attention to the use of chemical weapons and the current attacks on Rojava and call on the Green Party to act. The police are currently delaying this.
The action was registered spontaneously as a meeting.
One of the climate activists described the current situation in front of the Green party office via video message. She explains that she is currently alone in front of the office and that the police with at least 10 people are currently “protecting” the party headquarters. The climate activist explains that the party’s protesters want to give a speech. The speech is supposed to be about feminism, about foreign policy and draws attention to the autonomous areas in north-east Syria, which is one of the few areas where women’s rights are protected at all, but which are currently being attacked by the Turkish occupying state.
She criticizes the fact that the activists of the climate movement who are currently protesting in front of the party office want to draw the party’s attention to this and that they are being met with a massive police presence. Finally, the activist asks the Green Party how they can remain silent on the subject of Rojava, where something really serious is at stake and the party still refers to women’s rights.
More info to come…
LEIPZIG
On Friday afternoon, the SPD office on Rosa Luxemburgstrasse in Leipzig was occupied by activists from “Defend Kuristan” and “Women Defend Rojava”. About 15 people are demanding an end to the war of aggression on Rojava and an investigation into the use of poison gas in southern Kurdistan! The activists confronted the SPD politicians around Nadja Stahmer, member of the Bundestag, with the following demands:
“1) Publicly condemn Turkey’s war of aggression on the AANES and Northern Iraq.
2) Publicly and in your party, advocate that the Federal Republic of Germany apply to the OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) to investigate the chemical weapons attacks in southern Kurdistan/Northern Iraq.
3) Publicly support the AANES call for a no-fly zone in North and East Syria and sign the Women Defend Rojava statement on it.
4) Publicly and in your party, advocate that Germany imposes an embargo on the delivery of arms and arms parts to Turkey and Iran, and refrain from any political and economic support of the two states.
5) Publicly and in your party, campaign for the ban on the “Kurdistan Workers’ Party” (PKK), which has repeatedly been used as a justification for the persecution and oppression of Kurdish and democratically moved people in Germany, Turkey and all of Kurdistan , will be annulled. A solidarity like that performed by Interior Minister Nacy Faeser while bombs were falling on civilians and a Covid-19 clinic strengthens Turkey’s racist policy towards Kurds and carries them back to Germany.”
STATEMENT FROM CLIMATE ACTIVIST ON
THEIR CURRENT ACTIONS
Climate activists are currently using campaigns to draw attention to the illegal offensive by the Turkish underwriter state, which has been attacking the self-governing Kurdistan societies since November 19. In Cologne, there are demonstrations in front of the Turkish consulate, the Berlin party office of the Greens was blocked for a short time, and an action took place in which the actions of the Turkish government were made visible. There are more and more campaigns in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Bochum and other cities to follow. The “Defend Kurdistan” initiative called for the week of action under the motto “Lützerath lives”. The call is supported by Fridays For Future NRW, among others.
The activists of the climate movement explain the current situation in Kurdistan: “Turkish airstrikes on areas in north-eastern Syria are hitting civilian infrastructure: schools, hospitals, community centers, power supplies and grain elevators. The scientific service of the Bundestag classifies the attacks as contrary to international law. The airstrikes were preceded by an attack that killed six people in Istanbul on November 13, for which there was no constitutional investigation by Turkey. However, less than 24 hours after the attack, the Turkish government claimed that the YPG (Kurdish forces) were responsible. The Department of Defense announced “retaliation” without any hard evidence. According to a supreme commander of the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces), the assassin’s family connections point to the Islamist milieu. Kurdish organizations publicly distanced themselves from the attack.”
Viyan Agiri from the “Make Rojava Green Again” initiative, which is promoting ecological reconstruction after the immense destruction caused by years of war, explained: “My friends are being attacked while working in the hospital, which makes it clear what the attacks are really about: the destruction of the achievements of the Kurdish freedom movement and Kurdish society. Erdoğan’s war obviously has genocidal traits, yet the Western media unquestioningly accept the Turkish narratives and thereby make themselves complicit. German Interior Minister Faeser went even further, standing behind Turkey while the bombs destroyed energy supplies and schools. While German politicians like to be photographed with the slogan of the Kurdish women’s movement ‘Jin, Jiyan, Azadî’ in relation to the feminist revolution in Iran, in Berlin they close their eyes when exactly these women are bombed by Turkey.”
In addition to civilian infrastructure, prisons where tens of thousands of IS fighters are being held were also targeted. There have already been outbreaks. Jule Fischer von Lützerath Lives: “Turkey frees IS terrorists with the air strikes and unchallengedly calls this the fight against terrorism. The current wave of attacks hit exactly those who defeated IS at great cost. After being liberated from IS, they built a grassroots-democratic society – accusing these people of terrorism is inhuman.”
Charly Dietz, spokeswoman for Ende Gelände: “The climate justice movement is linked to the Kurdish freedom movement. In view of the climate catastrophe, societies around the world are facing existential challenges. The democratic project in Rojava has found answers to many of these questions and gives people everywhere hope for a more just world. An attack on them is an attack on everyone who works for ecology, feminism and grassroots democracy.”
The background to the current attacks is Erdoğan’s publicly announced plan to militarily “cleanse” a 30km wide strip of Syrian territory on the Syrian-Turkish border of the predominantly Kurdish population in order to settle Syrian refugees there. Numerous airstrikes on the civilian population served this purpose, intensified this year since April 17, up to and including serious war crimes through the use of poison gas, as Kurdish reports show. In order to carry out the current airstrikes, the consent of the USA and Russia, which control the airspace, is actually required.
