KURDS ARE CELEBRATING MAY DAY IN THE SPIRIT OF NEWROZ

Once again this year Kurds are celebrating May Day in Kurdistan, Turkey and all the capitals of the world, in the spirit of Newroz, the Kurdish New Year. This is because for Kurds, May Day is not just a day for workers and labour, but for the freedom and resistance of all the oppressed nations, classes and ‘others’ of the world; this is why May Day is also a celebration for Tamils, Baloch, Sindhi, Basque, women, students, religious groups and all oppressed peoples.

We are thousands here today from all these nations and groups, in exile, away from our lands, and we are in solidarity with the British working classes, of which we have also become a part of. But we have been made the scapegoats, the unemployed, pushed into menial labour as underpaid service providers of this system, which, in its economic crisis has targeted us more savagely than any other. Millions of people, officially and unofficially have lost their jobs, millions who did not have access to work have had their social security benefits cut, student fees have been tripled, access to housing and basic council services have been eroded, local community funding and services have become almost non-existent, and as the riots last year showed, there is a growing discontent among the working classes, which unfortunately has no political direction, at least not yet.

In Turkey, tens of workers are injured and on average four are killed daily in work related accidents. Some workers, due to their poor working conditions, die a slow death. Workers’ resistance, protest and struggle to gain their rights are attacked brutally by the police and many union members are detained and imprisoned. Workers’ are prevented from joining unions and the AKP government tries to pass laws which make it very difficult for unions to be formed and maintained.

Meanwhile in Kurdistan, military occupation, physical, social, cultural, political and economic genocide continues. On 28^th December 2011 the Turkish Armed Forces, with the use of Israeli and US technology and intelligence, deliberately massacred 34 Kurdish civilians, 19 of whom were children! In the previous months they had massacred a family of 7 in South Kurdistan (Iraq) and used chemical weapons against Kurdish guerrillas, massacring 35. These were milestones in revealing the current denial, assimilation and elimination policy of the Turkish state and AKP government, which for a long time tried to fool everyone that its intention to resolve the Kurdish issue was sincere. Of course not a single whisper was heard from the EU states and USA, the upholders of freedom and democracy in the region about these violations of fundamental human rights.

In Turkish occupied Kurdistan tens of Kurdish people are detained and imprisoned everyday by the fascist AKP government for being Kurdish and struggling for their basic national and human rights. There are 13.000 people imprisoned on terror charges in Turkish prisons, mostly Kurdish. This is 1/3 of all the terror suspects in the world. Among these ‘terrorists’ are 6 Members of Parliament, 36 Mayors, 50 lawyers, 105 journalists, professors, human rights activists, unionist members, women rights activists and over 2000 children! These honourable people also include the socialists and democrats of Turkey, who are in solidarity with the Kurdish people and their freedom struggle. The leader of this freedom struggle, the great revolutionary Abdullah Öcalan, who has been in solitary confinement for 13 years on an island prison in Turkey, has not been given the opportunity to meet with his lawyers for the past 10 months. The ongoing isolation of Mr. Öcalan means that the war will continue and that Kurdish people will have to continue their historical resistance. We believe that without the freedom of Öcalan, similar to that of Nelson Mandela, there can be no solution to the Kurdish question. Öcalan embodies and represents the will and freedom of the Kurdish people but also a new life for the Kurds and other peoples of the Middle East, whom Kurds live side-by-side with.

At a time when the Middle East is experiencing major upheavals and the status quo being challenged, local revolutions are being hijacked by Imperialist forces, who are using Turkey as a base to launch their attacks against the peoples of the Middle East. The Turkish state, like the other dictatorships of the region must be toppled, but this can only be done with the solidarity of all the progressive, anti-state forces in those countries. The Kurds are aiming for an alternative system within Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, which is formulated as Democratic Confederal Kurdistan, is founded on Democratic Socialist principles and rejects the nation-statist structure of the region. This we believe is the way forward for a truly democratic, equal, socialist, united and free Middle East.

This is why on this important May Day, we are saying once again that the struggles of all our peoples, wherever we may be, must serve to free the peoples of our countries, regions and the world; this can only be achieved by forming a democratic-ecological-equal society, outside of the state structure, which bases its principles around democratic socialism and a political and moral existence. May Day 2012 is the perfect day for coming together with all the workers, women, oppressed peoples, students and revolutionary groups who dream of a free and better world.

Long Live May Day! Biji Yeke Gulane! Yaşasın 1 Mayıs!

FED BIR – Kurdish Federation in the UK – fedbir@gmail.com

Halkevi – Kurdish Turkish Community Centre - halkeviuk@gmail.com  

KCC – Kurdish Community Centre - kurdscentre@gmail.com

Kurdish people condemn Eutelsat’s unjust attack on Roj TV

The Kurdish people condemn the decision of Paris based satellite company Eutelsat to suspend the broadcasts of Kurdish television channel Roj TV.  

Eutelsat has attempted to justify its action by claiming that the move is an inevitable response to the Danish Court ruling earlier this month and that it wants to avoid being “an accomplice to terrorist activities”.

But the Danish court only fined Roj TV for alleged links with the PKK; it stopped short of revoking its license and allowed it to continue broadcasting. Roj TV is also strongly contesting the Danish court’s decision and is currently appealing against the ruling. Eutelsat has therefore taken a decision that goes much further by taking Roj TV off the air.

The decision can only be seen as a partisan one that favours Turkey and discriminates against the Kurds. Turkey, as everyone must be well aware, has been waging a never ending campaign against Roj TV in order to suppress this independent voice of the Kurdish people and prevent the Kurdish perspective on what is going on inside Turkey from reaching a wider audience.

Turkey’s oppression of the Kurds has been rightly described as one of the great forgotten injustices of our time. Roj TV was founded to ensure that the Kurds have a voice and that what is happening to them cannot be forgotten and ignored. It is the only mass effective voice that the Kurds possess and it is vital that is continues. The attempts to prevent it from broadcasting are a blatant example of the continued persecution of the Kurds and provoke a deep sense of injustice among the Kurdish people.

The action by Eutelsat pre-empts the outcome of Roj TV’s appeal and can only be condemned as provocative.

Turkey wants to silence the Kurds as part of its ongoing policy of denial of Kurdish identity and repression of the Kurds as a people. This decision by Eutelsat comes at a critical time when the Turkish state is stepping up its repressive measures against the Kurds on various fronts: politically, legally and military, with the mass arrests and show trials of journalists, lawyers and politicians and increased military operations.

Roj TV is providing information that it vital on abuse and atrocities committed by the Turkish military, as in the mass killing by Turkish warplanes of 35 Kurdish civilians, known now as the Roboski Massacre, which took place on 28 December 2011. Without the broadcasts of Roj TV the full truth about such appalling incidents would never see the light of day and Turkey would get away with even worse atrocities against the Kurdish people. 


22 January 2012

Contact: KURDISH FEDERATION UK <fedbir@googlemail.com>