Yesterday, 8 February 2012, the Kurdish Community in London held a march to commemorate the 40th day of mourning for the 34 Kurdish civilians killed in a bombardment by Turkish fighter jets on 28 December 2011. The marchers carried 34 symbolic coffins from Amnesty International to the Turkish Embassy, where officials secretly filmed the protesters from inside the building. The peaceful demonstration was organised by several Kurdish community centres in London and attended nearly 200 people. You can read the original statement about the march below:
TURKEY IS MURDERING KURDISH CIVILIANS!
34 COFFINS THROUGH LONDON
OZGUR RONI (KURDISH) YOUTH ASSEMBLY MARCH
Date: 07.02.2012
Start Time: 1400h
Procession from Amnesty International to Turkish Embassy
On 28th December 2011 Turkish F-16 jets knowingly rained 4 tonne bombs on 34 Kurdish civilians in Şırnak, Uludere, Turkey’s Kurdish region. 19 of the victims were just children, all of them were under the age of 35. The bodies of the victims were mutilated beyond recognition and left to be collected by their families. Their only crime was to be Kurdish. Today we are re-enacting the funeral procession of the victims of this brutal massacre and marching to the Turkish Embassy.
THE FASCISM OF THE TURKISH STATE
250,000 Kurds have been massacred by the Turkish state since its formation in 1923. This policy of genocide was aimed at annihilating the Kurdish nation living within Turkey’s borders. Kurdish culture, language, history and representation were banned, denied and policies of extreme assimilation were implemented. This continues today and the attack against Kurds has intensified in recent months. 6000 Kurds, amongst them MPs, mayors, journalists, lawyers, intellectuals, women and children have been imprisoned and taken hostage in a political genocide campaign to break the Kurdish resistance against this genocide; civilians have been slaughtered in aerial and ground attacks, and Kurdish TV stations and newspapers have been banned in Turkey and Europe. These developments are reminiscent of Hitler’s Fascist Germany.
THE EU, USA AND INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC OPINION ARE SILENT
On 24th November 2011 Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan apologised for the 1938 Dersim Massacre in which 70,000 Kurds were savagely massacred by the Turkish state. The massacre in Uludere came only a few weeks after this statement was made and clearly showed that the fascist and racist mentality of the Turkish state has not changed. The AKP government tried to cover-up the massacre at first and banned the media from reporting on it. The incident hasn’t been investigated transparently and the AKP have not apologised or shown any remorse. Instead they have attempted to buy the silence of the victims with bribes and threats. Despite this grave injustice which was evidently pre-meditated the EU states, USA and other international powers and organisations have not condemned Turkey or even taken the issue to hand. This silence continues killing Kurds.
BRITISH PUBLIC OPINION MUST RAISE ITS VOICE!
You as an individual can help raise awareness of the injustices against the Kurdish nation in Turkey. Writing to or meeting your local councilor or MP and requesting that they take action and pressure the Foreign Secretary and current Conservative government; writing to other international human rights organisations, NGOs, solidarity organisations and media outlets or raising awareness over social media or in your own circles or boycotting Turkish tourism, will help the Kurdish people in resisting against this inhumanity, oppression and fascism so that these massacres do not occur again and the Kurdish nation gain their most basic human rights in Turkey.
Contact: Mehmet Aksoy halkevipr@gmail.com
You can find reports on the march, along with photos and audio at both kurdishblogger.com and the Alliance for Kurdish Rights.
Peace in Kurdistan 