The Kurdish community in Malta is organising a peaceful gathering outside the Turkish embassy in Floriana on Saturday at 10am, to condemn the Turkish invasion of northern Syria (Rojava) and the “brutal, unprovoked assault” by the Turkish state on communities in this area.
The gathering is being organised with the support of Moviment Graffitti.
Through the gathering, people in Malta will join the global outrage at the invasion that is resulting in the massacre of Kurds and other communities in Rojava and their displacement on a mass scale.
Those taking part will call upon the world to take action and stop the invasion of Rojava, the ongoing massacre of communities in this area and the renewed ISIS threat brought about by the Turkish government’s actions.
The community urged the Maltese government to honour its Constitutional obligation to actively work for peace by informing the Turkish ambassador that Malta forcefully opposed the Turkish invasion of Rojava.
Turkey, the community said in a statement, was using Islamist militias to carry out its war on communities in Rojava, and these were engaging in the cold-blooded assassination of Kurdish civilians such as woman's rights activist and political leader Hevrin Khalaf.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also made it clear he aimed to change the demographics of Northern Syria. This demographic re-engineering was already at an advanced stage in the Kurdish province of Afrin.
After the Turkish invasion of the province last year, Turkish-backed Islamist militias have driven Kurdish people out of their homes and lands, to replace them with people coming from other parts of Syria. Kurdish and other communities were thus facing the imminent risk of being ethnically cleansed from large swathes of Syria.
The community warned that the Turkish invasion was threatening to revive the ISIS insurgency as thousands of ISIS members held in camps guarded by the Kurdish forces would take the opportunity provided by the fighting to flee and reconstitute terrorist cells.
Kurdish forces guarding ISIS prisoners had been targeted by the Turkish army and renewed ISIS activity in Rojava was reported. For years, Turkey permitted weapons, recruits, and resources to reach ISIS through its borders, it claimed.