No Turkish war propaganda in Germany (Press Release)

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) demands a ban on campaign appearances of Turkish politicians in Germany, in order not to stir up further tensions between Kurds and Turks. “We assume that the Turkish occupation of the Kurdish region of Afrin in Syria will play a major role in the election campaign of the Turkish president. Recep Tayyip Erdogan wanted to antedate the elections to be able to benefit from the war fever of many of the Turkish people. The German authorities should not remain silent about the occupation and the war crimes, while the violations of international law are being downplayed or glorified. This is where – in democratic countries – freedom of expression ends,” explained Ulrich Delius, the STP’s director, in Göttingen on Friday.

Turkey’s war of aggression has led to a further destabilization and a massive increase in violence in Syria. More than 200,000 people were already forced to flee from the advancing tanks and the war crimes. “The EU now has to spend millions of Euros on humanitarian aid. It would be absurd to reward the warmongers with campaign appearances in Germany,” Delius criticized. “One of the reasons why Erdogan started this war is that he wanted to use the wave of enthusiasm in Turkey to become the country’s ‘Sun King’ – with unlimited power.”

At the end of January 2018, as part of the war of aggression, the Turkish army and its allied Islamist militias carried out illegal attacks on Afrin’s hospital, fired at civilians who tried to escape, and besieged the city for weeks – war crimes and crimes against humanity, to be seen as severe violations of international humanitarian law. “As an occupying force, Turkey and its allied militias are responsible for serious human rights violations in and around Afrin,” Delius said. “Indiscriminate plundering, the destruction of Kurdish monuments and cemeteries… and the Kurdish language was banned from public life. The Christians and Yazidis have to fear for their lives. The radical Islamist militias are terrorizing the civilian population with Sharia laws, and are deliberately restricting women’s rights.”

Header Photo: AMISOM Public Information via Flickr