LONDON—Thousands of people took to the streets throughout Europe today in a demonstration of support for Kurds in Kobane, the Syrian border town under siege from Islamic State (IS) fighters for more than a month.
“This is a crucial moment for Kurdish activism. We are coming together as never before and with global support as never before,” Aysegul Erdogan, a Kurdish human rights activist and one of the organisers of the demonstration in London’s Trafalgar Square, told Rudaw. Thousands of people waved multi-coloured flags and placards in the sun as they listened to speeches from members of parliament and human rights activists.
In Turkey, there were fears that protests in the capital Istanbul and Turkey’s biggest Kurdish city Diyarbakir could turn violent. Several hundred people, mainly leftist groups and supporters of the banned PKK marched through Istanbul's main shopping district waving PKK and YPG flags and pictures of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, despite warnings from the government the protest was illegal and it would come down hard on any civil disturbance.
Water cannons and hundreds of riot police armed with tear gas stood watch only metres away stopping the group's advance while protesters shouted anti IS slogans as well as "Free Kurdistan".
Ankara has said it will hold the main pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) responsible for any violence after it made a call earlier this week for people to take to the streets. Some 40 people were killed during riots over Kobane in Kurdish cities last month following a similar call by the HDP.
The Dogan news agency reported that some 20,000 protesters had also gathered in Diyarbakir.
Elsewhere in Europe, demonstrators carrying green and gold Kurdish flags and placards saying “Hands Off Kobane” thronged the streets in major cities from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, with some protestors supporting or criticising their own governments’ actions in the crisis.
In Bremen, Germany, where a crowd of more than 2,000 marched through the city centre, protesters welcomed the decision by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, announced in September, to train and arm Iraqi Kurds.
“It is only right that Germany should come off the fence for the first time since the Second World War and lend its support to those most in need,” said Johann Kraus, a student in Bremen.
In Paris, where large crowds gathered under the Eiffel tower, many were critical of President Francois Hollande’s reception of Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan yesterday. Carrying placards saying “Shame on France” and “Support Kobane”, protestors called on the French Presidency to bring pressure to bear on Turkey to give greater support to Kurdish fighters.
“We denounce the politics of complicity between France and Erdogan,” said Sophie Castellet, a human rights activist, who accused President Hollande of putting politics and commerce ahead of humanitarian values.
In Italy, 19 cities saw demonstrations. In Rome, Yilmaz Orcan, a member of the Kurdistan National Congress, told Rudaw that while there had always been support for Kurds among the Italian public, parliamentarians were now taking up the issue of Kobane, the humanitarian crisis and the fight against IS.
“Italy has a role to play with humanitarian help, and our MPs are now open to our argument that Italy shouldn’t support Turkey and indeed should openly criticise the support (Turkey) has given IS,” he said.
The day of protests, backed by an open letter signed by thousands of signatories, including the American sociologist Noam Chomsky, South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu, leading human rights lawyers and Nobel prize winners across the world, is also intended to seize the publicity initiative back from IS, say its organisers.
“It’s a chance to put out the message about how successful our fight against IS has been, to take back some of the media attention that they dominated in the early days,” said Arzu Pesmen, of the Kurdish Assembly UK and one of the organisers of the London protest.
“We’ve seen massive unity among Kurds in the last few months. It has brought together Kurds from Iran, Iraq and Syria. And not just Kurds, but Alevis and Turkish human rights activists too,” she told Rudaw.
Ms Erdogan believes that the fight against IS has given a new momentum to Kurdish activism.
“This is where we must unite. Our enemies are stronger and worse than ever before, so we are coming together as never before,” she said.
Songul Bahar, who lives in London and was at the Trafalgar Square demonstration, told Rudaw her brother, who lives in Kobane, had been fighting IS since the assault on the town began 40 days ago.
“I spoke to him on Skype three days ago and he was very tired. He looked terrible and said he hadn’t slept for 15 days.”
“They have managed to evacuate the civilians from the centre of the town, but now they are living in cars around the edges – they have no proper shelter. Their most urgent need is shelter before the winter sets in,” she said.
Her brother had told her that the US-led weapons drop in October was a success, and he wanted the West to repeat it.
“The only thing they want is weapons. If they have those, they will be strong enough to defeat IS on their own. They don’t need help from foreign troops,” she said.
“When I asked him when we would see him again, he said we’ll meet in Amed (the Kurdish name for Diyarbakir). He says he would rather die in his land than live somewhere else.”
In the Basque Country, a sympathetic region of Spain towards the Kurdish cause, some 250 people demonstrated Saturday morning in Bilbao against the genocide in Kobane, while in the Spanish capital Madrid organizers were expecting thousands to march during a demonstration in the evening.
Julia Iglesias Lopez, a Spanish nurse from Bilbao, who is part of the Pro Kurdish Newroz organization which organized the march, told Rudaw they are supporting the international initiative with this march.
“We have always been very sensitive towards people’s fights and feel very close to what is happening in Kobane,” said Iglesias Lopez.
Chalabi Blind, a Kurd from Kobane who is a luthier by profession, said from the demonstration in Bilbao that he feels “very negative” about the situation in Kobane.
“We hope the Peshmerga will improve the situation,” said Blind, who has been living in Spain with his wife for the past ten years.
The Committee of Solidarity with Rojava and the Kurdish People has organized the march in Madrid where more than 200 Kurdish people live.
Nieves Itarraguirre, a Spanish psychologist who was part of the organizers in Madrid, said the aim of the march is “to mobilize and to make people more conscious about the Kurdish problem.”
.webp&w=3840&q=75)
