Last Saturday, the 3. December, demonstrated about 110 People in Kassel against the attacks of the Turkish army in Kurdistan. The Kassel group of the “Women Defend Rojava” initiative, among others, called for the demonstration., the Federation of Democratic Workers' Associations (DIDF) and the local Kurdish association.
The reason for the demonstration has been since then 19. Turkey's ongoing attacks on cities and villages in northeastern Syria and northern Iraq on November 11. Alone on 3. The Turkish army has at least December 46 Villages bombed, says a recent statement from the media- and Syrian Democratic Forces Communications Center. There were even the day before 83 been settlements and villages, who were attacked with artillery pieces and drones.
With slogans and music, the demonstration first moved to the headquarters of the Kassel Green Party, which is rather hidden in an inconspicuous building on Sickingenstrasse. There a speaker symbolically addressed the Greens, of those, now in government responsibility, Despite the promise of a “feminist foreign policy” on this issue, nothing can be heard other than appeasement policy towards Turkey. We continued through the city center and finally to the final rally at the main train station without incident.
Alleged defense against terrorism
The bombings of the Kurdish region are justified by alleged “counter-terrorism”. Just a few hours after the explosion in an Istanbul shopping street 13. In November, a young woman was presented to the public as a suspected assassin, who received their orders from the PKK. The woman's alleged confession however, raises numerous questions, and both the PKK and Syrian Kurdish PYD officials said, to have no connections to the suspected assassin.
Nevertheless, the attack in Istanbul now serves as a welcome excuse for the Turkish army, to bomb military and civilian facilities in the Syrian and Iraqi parts of Kurdistan. Camps for refugees were among the targets of the first waves of attacks, an electricity plant, a corona clinic and a wheat depot. The city of Kobanê was particularly hard hit, which, like no other place in the region, represents the turning point in the fight against the Islamic State.
Many are currently worried, that the Turkish military is preparing a large-scale ground offensive with the current attacks. That's not entirely unlikely, The Turkish head of state Erdogan is threatening the Kurdish self-defense structures in Syria with “extermination” and would rather send tanks and soldiers across the border today rather than tomorrow.
Use of poison gas
The demonstration was also embedded in the international days of action, to draw attention to the war crimes committed by the Turkish army in Kurdistan and especially their use of poison gas. There have been reports for several months now, that poison gas is being used by the Turkish military, to fight the Kurdish guerrillas. So far, the organization has supported the ban on chemical weapons (OPCW) but refused, to take these reports seriously and to examine samples from guerrilla positions. The silence of the international community encourages Turkey to do so, not to be held accountable for their war crimes, says the call from Defend Kurdistan. That's why they decided, with the action days from 30. November – the UN Day in memory of all victims of chemical weapons – until 3. December by many decentralized actions and demonstrations to draw attention to this.
In addition to the attacks by the Turkish army, the attacks by the Iranian regime were also the topic of the demonstration. Especially Kurdish cities in the north-west of Iran, where the protests were particularly violent after the death of the young Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini, have been literally cut off from the public in recent weeks and the population has been attacked by Iranian security forces. There are also weekly protests taking place in Kassel about this.
