Wednesday, April 27
1PM NY / 6PM UK / 8PM Shengal

On April 17, Turkey launched an invasion in South Kurdistan (northern Iraq), deploying ground forces and bombarding large areas with warplanes, drones, and artillery. In addition to targeting PKK bases, Turkey has also attacked civilians, hitting villages in air strikes and terrorizing the local Kurdish communities. Evidently, the invasion has been facilitated by the Kurdistan Regional Government. Not surprisingly, there has been no condemnation of Turkey's actions by the international community and little to no coverage of the invasion in the mainstream media.

At the same time, on April 18, the Iraqi Army started attacks on the Yazidi YBS/YJS and Asayish forces protecting the towns at the foot of Mt. Shengal. YBS/YJS and Asayish were created by the Yazidi people as a self-defense measure against ISIS. Now, those same militias must be ready to endure airstrikes from Turkey as well as aggression from the Iraqi army on the ground if they are to once again protect the Yazidi people from genocide.

Join us on April 27 to discuss these developments with local and foreign journalists, analysts, and politicians and to hear an exclusive report from the ground in Shengal. The event is co-organized with the Kurdish People's Assembly(UK).

Register to get the Zoom link here.

Speakers:

Şami Ramo - a prominent member of Tajê, women's movement in Shengal

Sam Al Darwesh - a college student working in media, a member of the Autonomous Administration of Shengal and its resistance units.

Lloyd Russell-Moyle - a British Member of Parliament for Brighton Kemptown. He is the chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Kurdistan in Turkey and Syria.

Şervan Ronny Castro - a New York filmmaker who is in Shengal at the invitation of the Autonomous Administration of Shengal. He has produced documentaries in the United States, West Africa and the Philippines.

Alexander Lambrechts - a free-lance journalist, currently in Shengal, conducting research about the post-ISIS situation of the Yazidi communities in the Sinjar region

Dastan Jasim - a Graduate Fellow at the GIGA Institute for Middle East Studies and a Doctoral Student at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg. Her research focuses on the civic culture of Kurds in Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey, as well as on security developments in the Kurdish regions.

Moderated by Meghan Bodette - Director of Research at the Kurdish Peace Institute

Solidarity,
ECR