Press Releases
On September 25, 2020, Turkish police issued arrest warrants for 82 leading members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) on the charges of inciting public disorder and terroristic propaganda. Those detained include Ayhan Bilgen, the elected Kurdish mayor of the city of Kars (Qers in Kurdish). Of the 65 HDP mayors elected in the 2019 elections, 47 have now been replaced by government appointees, and some of those dismissed mayors have been imprisoned on “terrorism” charges. Additionally, Cihan Erdal, a PhD student at Carleton University who was visiting family and carrying out fieldwork, was detained.
The Pence agreement is a travesty that gives Erdogan everything he wants and offers the Kurds nothing. We call on Congress to repudiate this agreement and impose heavy sanctions for Turkey's invasion of Rojava and egregious violations of human rights by its military and armed groups.
The Trump administration was in no position to make any agreement involving the Kurds, whom it had just betrayed, without asking their opinion, let alone seeking their collaboration. This is classic colonialist behavior. Rojava is not a US colony. Nor does the US have the right or the power to give Syrian territory to Turkey.
AKA, ECR and a coalition of Rojava support groups have called for a rally at Union Square Saturday October 12 at 2 PM. The rally is one of dozens being called around the country Saturday - from Albany to Portland, Oregon as citizens express their indignation at the decision by President Donald Trump to abandon the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), our Kurdish-led partners in the fight against ISIS.
As he did in December 2018, Donald Trump got on the phone on Sunday, Oct. 6, with Recept Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and give him a green light to invade Rojava. He said U.S. troops will move out of the way and hand control of ISIS prisoners over to Turkey. In fact, U.S. troop withdrawal has already begun.
With reports of the Trump administration planning to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, along with disturbing new documentation released today about Turkey’s war crimes in Afrin, we are writing to alert our elected representatives and the public to the dire consequences should Turkey attack Rojava (the Kurdish majority region in northeastern Syria) east of the Euphrates, as it has promised. Turkey appears poised to attack whether or not American troops are stationed there. On Dec. 12, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a speech saying a Turkish offensive is imminent. The Pentagon command responded that such a “unilateral action” would be “unacceptable,” but the US has warned Turkey similarly in the past with no real consequences. Turkey has already been signaling its intentions by sniping at civilians across the border and bombing Kurdish areas in Iraq including the Makhmour refugee camp and Mount Shingal, home to the Yazidis.