Press Releases
10/24/2024
Attack on a drone factory in Ankara
Human rights organization demands international investigations
Following yesterday’s attack on a drone factory in Ankara, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) is calling for an independent international investigation – to clarifying who is really behind the attack. “Erdogan, and with him the entire Turkish state, did not even wait for the results of their own investigation before bombing Kurdish cities and villages in northern Syria,” reported Dr. Kamal Sido, the STP’s Middle East Consultant, in Göttingen on Thursday. “Apparently, Turkey launched several attacks on Qamischli, Kobanî, and other villages in northern Syria during the night. Only a few minutes after the attack, leading German politicians had already declared their solidarity with NATO-Partner Turkey. However, German politicians don’t even consider it necessary to demand Turkey to protect the civilian population while carrying out its daily attacks on Kurdish, Assyrian/Aramaean, Yazidi, Christian, and Alevi cities and villages in northern Syria and the north of Iraq – with warplanes, fighter drones, rockets, artillery, and tanks.“
A few days ago, the STP had appealed to the federal executive boards of the SPD, the FDP, and the Green Party to start an open and honest discussion about the irresponsible way in which German politicians are dealing with Turkish President Erdogan and with Islamism in general. “Olaf Scholz and Annalena Baerbock are damaging the reputation of the Federal Republic of Germany by not committing themselves to peace and negotiations between Turkey and the Kurdish people. They are not even demanding the release of Kurdish politicians such as Selahattin Demirtaş or Abdullah Öcalan,” Sido criticized. Like tens of thousands of others, Demirtaş has been in prison since 2016 for campaigning for peace and negotiations – and because he criticized Erdoğan’s support for the so-called “Islamic State” and other Islamists.
Even the European Court of Human Rights has been calling for Demirtaş’s release for years. From prison, Demirtaş sharply condemned the attack and urged all sides to end violence, terror, and war, and to engage in dialogue. Öcalan has been in prison for a quarter of a century (1999), for several years in solitary confinement. According to various sources, Öcalan is said to have called for an end to the violence behind the scenes as well.
“Erdoğan and his supporters don’t seem to be interested in these calls to put an end to violence, terror, and war. The question remains: who benefits from violence, terror, and war? Certainly not the Kurdish civilians, nor the people in Turkey… only politicians pursuing their power interests and the military-industrial complex, which continues to sell more weapons and profits from war at the expense of innocent lives, seem to have an interest in more and more violence and war,” Sido emphasized.
The STP’s appeal regarding Germany’s approach to Erdoğan and other Islamists (from October 16, 2024) can be found here.