11/14/2016

Appeal to Steinmeier: Please visit opposition leader Demirtas in prison!

German Foreign Minister expected in Turkey (November 15) (Press Release)

“A visit to the prison would be a clear sign that Germany and the EU will not let down the Kurds, the Alevites, the other minority groups, nor the democracy movement in Turkey.” Photo: Cia Pak via UN Photo

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has asked the German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to visit the imprisoned leader of the pro-Kurdish opposition party HDP, Selahattin Demirtas, during his visit to Turkey next Tuesday. “A visit to the prison would be a clear sign that Germany and the EU will not let down the Kurds, the Alevites, the other minority groups, nor the democracy movement in Turkey,” says a letter the STP sent to Steinmeier. The human rights organization also appealed to the minister to urge the Turkish government to put an end to the attacks of the Turkish army against the civilian population in the region of Afrin (which is mostly inhabited by Kurds) in the northwest of Syria.

“We are deeply concerned that the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is planning to grind down the HDP. That would be a disaster, because it would lead to a dissociation of the Kurdish population in the south-east of Turkey from the state. The consequences for the civilian population would be devastating,” the STP appealed to Steinmeier. The HDP has been trying to mediate between the PKK and the government in Ankara for years. However, at the beginning of November, Selahattin Demirtas and many of his party colleagues (who had joined the Turkish parliament following democratic elections) were arrested. Demirtas is one of the most popular politicians in Turkey. His party advocates for a peaceful solution to the Kurdish conflict, demanding both the PKK as well as the Turkish government to stop the violence and to enter a political dialogue immediately.

The Turkish army has now been attacking civilian targets in the Northern Syrian Kurdish region of Afrin for several days. On Thursday alone, a Kurdish woman got killed, and 20 people were injured in the village of Marwaniye to the west of the city Afrin. At the end of October, the Turkish Air Force had attacked Kurdish villages to the north of Aleppo. About 900 people were forced to leave their villages because of the attacks of the Turkish army and the Islamist allies.

Instead of supporting or endorsing the policy of the Turkish government, Germany and the EU should look for ways to provide the distressed civilian population in Northern Syria with aid supplies. So far, Turkey has been blocking the border crossings to the neighboring countries, not allowing any aid convoys to pass. “Regular aid supplies would ease the situation in the Kurdish areas and could encourage most of the people to stay in their country instead of fleeing to Western Europe,” the STP is convinced.

Header Photo: Cia Pak via UN Photo