Stop the attacks on Kurdish people in Germany, Turkey, northern Iraq and everywhere!

Beginning on December 16 of last year, the Turkish air force has been bombing Kurdish villages in the north of Iraq. According to official statements by the Turkish government and army command, these bombardments were aimed at positions of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK).

But these attacks destroyed hospitals, schools and apartments, killed civilians and drove more than 2,000 people from their villages, people who are now exposed to the hard winter in the mountains of the Iraqi-Turkish-Iranian border region without any protection. Additionally, the continuous artillery fire by Turkish forces was intensified and ground troops crossed the Iraqi-Turkish border into the “Autonomous Region of Kurdistan”.

The USA are playing along…

The Turkish military was supported by the US army in occupied Iraq: they didn’t just open the northern Iraqi air space for the Turkish bombers, they also gave the Turkish air force video recordings from American spy planes and drones circling around positions of the PKK and other guerilla organizations. Additionally, a joint office of US intelligence services and the Turkish army was set up in Ankara to coordinate actions against organizations that fight for freedom for the Kurds.

The government of the Region of Kurdistan, a corrupt faction composed of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), protested softly against the Turkish invasion, but didn’t dare to say a word against the US occupation forces because it is politically and economically dependent on them. Instead, this government participated in the repression against the PKK and organizations that are close to it. For example, the mountain region where many PKK fighters are based was sealed off, which means no shipments of food could reach it. This measure primarily hurts the villagers in this area.

The conduct of the Kurdish government in northern Iraq shows that the road of collaboration with imperialist powers will not help the Kurds in their struggle for political and cultural self-determination. Such self-determination can only be attained through the cooperation of all workers and peasants of the region against the imperialist aggressors.

…and so is Germany

The weeks and months before the Turkish attack were accompanied by a powerful anti-Kurdish agitation in Turkey which also affected some people of Turkish origin in Germany. After a demonstration by the fascist “Gray Wolves” in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin, the mood was like a pogrom. And even if Berlin’s interior minister talks about foreign conflicts being imported into the Federal Republic of Germany, the German state is already a party in this conflict: the tanks used for the invasion of northern Iraq were mostly produced in Germany.

Germany is also participating in the repression against the Kurdish freedom movement: the PKK and other Kurdish organizations are prohibited in Germany as well. Their members are imprisoned, some of them are even deported to Turkish torture prisons, and communist organizations from Turkey are harassed with the “anti-terror-paragraphs” 129a and b.

• For the right of self-determination for the Kurdish people and all oppressed people in the Middle East!
• No to the repression against Kurdish and Turkish, communist organizations in Germany!
• Protect Kurdish people from racist attacks by the “Gray Wolves” and other racists!
• For a socialist federation of the Middle East, to guarantee well-being and self-determination for all people!

by Antonio, Revo Berlin, January 5, 2008