Press Releases

02/13/2018

Human Rights Action: No German weapons for the Turkish war of aggression against peaceful Afrin in northern Syria!

Chancellor Merkel meets Turkish Prime Minister Yildirim (Appointment)

We will demand the German Chancellor to stop the Turkish army from using German weapons and armaments – such as the Leopard tanks – against the peaceful Kurdish regions in the neighboring country. Photo: EU2017EE Estonian Presidency via Flickr

Thursday, February 15, 2018 – from 2 pm to 5 pm
in front of the Federal Chancellery, Willy-Brandt-Straße 1, 10557 Berlin


The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) is organizing a critical human rights campaign on occasion of the planned meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Turkish counterpart, Binali Yildirim, in Berlin next Thursday.

The human rights activists will present toy tanks on a silver platter, emphasizing that the German federal government – by approving of arms exports to Turkey – accepts the deaths of many civilians in the peaceful region of Afrin in northwestern Syria, which is mainly inhabited by Kurdish people.

“We will demand the German Chancellor to stop the Turkish army from using German weapons and armaments – such as the Leopard tanks – against the peaceful Kurdish regions in the neighboring country,” announced Kamal Sido, the STP’s Middle East Consultant. “Turkey’s illegal war of aggression has been going on since January 20. Many civilians have been killed or injured – and there are attempts to destroy the livelihood of the Kurdish peasants. The German federal government must not remain silent about this escalation, but should demand its NATO partner to stop the attacks immediately.”

Hundreds of thousands of German Kurds, Alevis, Yazidis, and Christians from Syria or Turkey are worried about their friends and relatives in Afrin, Sido emphasized. Every day, they have to live in fear of becoming victims of rocket or artillery attacks by the Turkish army. “Their compatriots in Germany expect the Federal Government to adopt a new policy on Turkey and the Kurds.” From the viewpoint of the STP, this new policy should not just follow the wishes of the Turkish government, but should – above all – focus on human rights and minority rights as a guiding principle.

Header Photo: EU2017EE Estonian Presidency via Flickr