Vigil in front of the Chancellery: Merkel should demand Davutoglu to stop support for Islamists in Syria and to allow aid supplies for Kurds and Christians!

Monday, January 12, 2015 | 10:15 o'clock
Human rights protest in front of the Chancellery

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) will hold a vigil in front of the Federal Chancellery on Monday next week (January 12, 2015 – starting at 10:15 am) to appeal to German Chancellor Angela Merkel to demand Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish Prime Minister, to stop supporting the radical Islamists in Syria and to finally allow humanitarian aid supplies for the distressed Kurdish and Christian civilians. "Please stop ignoring the fact that the Turkish government is providing logistical support for the Islamists, harming not only the people of Syria, Iraq, Libya and Egypt, but also working against a peaceful coexistence of different religious communities in the world," says the letter the international human rights organization sent to Angela Merkel before the official visit.

According to research by the STP, Turkey is a transit country for jihadists from all over the world who are trying to get through to Syria or Iraq – and, at the same time, a retreat area for weary Islamist fighters – and wounded fighters are treated in Turkish hospitals. Their pay is transferred through Turkish banks.

"In the Syrian Kurdish border town Kobani, the remaining Kurdish population has now been besieged by IS-Islamists for almost four months. Ankara allows only infrequent aid supplies for the besieged who are desperately trying to defend themselves against attacks. Only 160 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters from Iraqi Kurdistan were allowed to help defend Kobani. The Kurds are in desperate need of a permanent and safe corridor to Kobani. Also, the border crossings to the other two predominantly Kurdish enclaves Afrin and Cezire must be opened for humanitarian aid supplies," says the STP.

In Afrin and Cezire in the north-west and in the north-east of Syria, there is hardly any bread, let alone baby food or adequate medication. The humanitarian situation of the people living there – about three million Kurds, Christian Assyrians/Aramaeans and other minorities – is getting worse. Just like Kobani, the two regions are largely cut off from the outside world. Both Islamists fighters as well as troops of the Syrian government have set up blockades in the south. At the same time, the Turkish troops who are blocking access in the north rarely let aid convoys pass through.