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By Rebwar Rashed: It’s by now very clear that Turkey has done and will continue do everything in its power to demonize the PKK and blame it for every bad thing affecting Turkey, especially the violence that’s mushroomed there. The PKK is a political party that emerged in 1979 but decided to take arms in…
By Diliman Abdulkader: The first modern Kurdish civil war took place in southern Kurdistan, in what is now the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) territory, between Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Masoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). The conflict took the lives of nearly 5,000 Kurdish fighters and civilians, dividing the autonomous region between…
By Rebwar Rashed: With a portfolio comprising the Copenhagen criteria, respect for national, democratic and human rights and a little understanding that other people also need freedom, peace and friendly neighbors, Turkey could have gone a great way towards sustainable peace and a wellbeing future. Turkey’s situation, however, is exactly the opposite. Turkey slides slowly but surely…
By Ozkan Kocakaya: The war declared by the Turkish state in July 2015 on the PKK is rightly viewed as a war on Kurds by the international community. That it was pre-planned and executed on the back of the AKP’s failure to get a majority in the June 2015 elections is obvious. Not only did…
By Mark Thomas: This was the message by the comedian Mark Thomas to Sunday’s UK national ‘Stop Turkey’s War on Kurds! Break the Silence!’ demonstration: Comrades and friends, I am sorry not to join you today but despite my best efforts the vagaries of privatised public transport have prevented me joining you. I am massively…
By David Phillips, Kelly Berkell: Published by Lawfare Removing the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) from the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) would create conditions for greater security cooperation between the United States and the PKK in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). In exchange for delisting, the…
Press Release: Break the silence! 6th March 2016, 13:00-17:00 BBC Broadcasting House to Trafalgar Square There is a civil war being fought in the cities and towns of southeast Turkey. Fifty two (52) round-the-clock curfews have been imposed by the central government on Kurdish-majority communities; in some places for the last three months. The government…
Peace in Kurdistan Campaign Statement: Following the collapse of the peace process with the Kurds and the victory of the ruling AKP in the second general election of 2015, Turkey is actually now laying siege to its own cities in the Kurdish southeast. This brings back horrific memories reminiscent of the dirty war against the…
Peace in Kurdistan Press Release: Kurdish woman Shilan Ozcelik, who was arrested in January for allegedly attempting to join the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), will appear in court on Monday 7 September, 10am, for the first day of her trial. The 18 year old was charged with ‘engaging in conduct in preparation to for giving…
By Dr. Barry A. Fisher & Luqman Bawari: The United States has trumpeted a July 23, 2015, agreement under which Turkey would, after years of refusal, allow the United States to use the strategically located Incirlik air base in operations against the Islamic State (IS). At the time of publication, no such U.S. strikes had yet…
By Kurdistan Women’s Community (KJK): Download the Background Information File in full (pdf) I. Political Evaluation by KJK The Turkish state has declared total war on the Kurdish people. The decision to undertake this strategy of total war was made at the meeting of Turkey’s National Security Council on 30 October 2014, when the resistance…
Support Us In Our Call! Declaration to the Peoples of Turkey and the world, Like many people in Turkey, we, as academics, were emboldened by the peace/solution process between the Turkish state and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) officially initiated in January 2013, hoping for a new era that would end the conflicts continuing for over…
By Rebwar Rashed: On Monday 20th July 32 youths were killed in the Kurdish town of Pirsoz (Suruc is the Turkish name of the city after the Turkification of Kurdistan from 1923) by an alleged ISIS suicide bomber, although Kurds think it’s in reality president Erdogan who is lying behind this. As a revenge action…
By Dr. Amy L. Beam: On July 25, 2015, Turkey launched simultaneous missile attacks into Syria against Islamic State (ISIS or Daesh) targets and into Qandil, Kurdistan, against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) who have been the leading force fighting ISIS. Turkey stated its attack in the Qandil region was to destroy arms and munitions storage…
By the Executive Council of Kurdistan National Congress: Yesterday on the 24th of July, at 10:55pm Turkish jets have bombed Kurdish areas (Xakurke, Qandil, Behdinan, Zap, Gare, Basye, Amedia, and Avasin) in south Kurdistan where mostly PKK guerrillas and civilians are situated. This attacks are still continuing. The AKP government authorized Turkish military and air…
