ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani on Thursday issued a statement condoling the death of a Syrian Kurdish child who drowned trying to reach Greece with his family.
The picture of three-year-old named Aylan Kurdi, who drowned Wednesday as his family tried to reach the Greek island of Kos from Turkey, brought home the tragedy of the many refugees who have been trying to reach Europe from war-torn Syria, many of them Kurds. Aylan’s family is from Syrian Kurdish city of Kobani.
“The image of the drowned Kurdish child from Kobani is another symbol of the tyrannized Kurdish people in the world,” Barzani said in his statement.
“The World is responsible to protect the Kurdish nation and prevent the repetition of calamities before the Kurdish people,” he added.
“The time is here to end the tragedy and expatriation of the Kurdish nation and let them live on their land peacefully with honor,” the president said.
“The departure of Aylan and his family, who abandoned their homeland for Europe, is an example of the tyranny the Kurds have been suffering from since last decades,” his statement added.
“Although we call on the citizens of Kurdistan not to leave their country, the international community should help adopt those refugees turning to the European countries, and receive Kurdish migrants without discrimination,” Barzani urged.
Aylan was among 23 migrants who Turkish naval officials said had set off in two small boats from the Bodrum peninsula in Turkey and later died.
Tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing the conflict in their homeland have descended on Turkey's Aegean coast this summer to board boats to Greece, their gateway to the European Union. The EU is set to formulate new plans next week to share refugees across European states, as well as to speed deportations of unwanted migrants.
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