Press Release - For immediate release

London, 11th January 2016

ISIS SUPPORTER TURKEY CONTINUES KILLING KURDS: OVER 162 KILLED!

The Turkish state executed 12 Kurdish youths in the city of Kurdish city of Van on 10th January (yesterday). Many Kurdish cities and towns are have been under curfew and siege by the Turkish military and police for months. They are attacking thousands of people with tanks, mortar and snipers. In the past four months at least 162 civilians have been killed according to human rights organisations. State forces are not allowing Kurds to bury their mothers, fathers and children; over 50 bodies are being kept in morgues, in homes and on streets.

The Turkish AKP government and its president Recep Tayyip Erdogan have been supporting ISIS and other jihadist forces to kill Kurds for the last 2 years in Syria. However the Kurds have pushed back and are beating these inhumane forces. Now Turkey is doing its own dirty work itself and trying to oppress and massacre Kurds who want recognition, self-rule and freedom in Turkey. Just like in Rojava (North Syria) the Kurds are also resisting for a secular, democratic and gender-equal society in North Kurdistan (SE Turkey) against the Islamist forces of the Turkish state. Therefore once again the Kurds are fighting not just for themselves but also for the whole of humanity. Jihadists who fought in Syria and travelled from Turkey carried out the Paris attacks; the Kurds are a bulwark against these forces.

Unfortunately western governments are completely silent on the massacre of Kurds because of their economic and military ties with Turkey. The recent agreement Turkey reached with the EU regarding the refugee crisis means Turkey is being given a free hand in exacting genocide on the Kurds. But there is danger of civil war if the Kurdish question is not resolved using peaceful political means. Everyone’s interests will be in danger if this happens and we want to prevent it. Civil war means more bloodshed, more displacement, more poverty, more refugees and more crises. This is why we will be having two demonstrations:

1st DEMO: 11/01/2016 - 1pm in front of the Turkish Embassy: 43 Belgrave Square London SW1X 8PA United Kingdom

2nd DEMO: 11/01/2016 - 6pm in front of the Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing St, London SW1A 2AA

Support us in our struggle for the recognition, right to self-determination and freedom of Kurds!Support us in our struggle for a democratic, secular and gender-equal society!Support us in our struggle for a peaceful and political solution to the Kurdish question!

As British Kurds:

We demand that the UK government criticise and pressure Turkey to stop its human rights abuses against Kurds.

We demand that the UK government impose sanctions on Turkey. We ask that you write to your local MP about this issue and pressure them

to bring it up in Parliament. We request that you boycott Turkish tourism and products.

Democratic Union Initiative, UK