The Kurdistan Communities Union) KCK Executive Council co-presidency published a statement on May 26, which has been proclaimed “Global Action Day against Turkish occupation of Afrin. Actions are being organised in different parts of the world.

The KCK statement reads:

“On 26 May the peoples of the world and Kurds will take to the streets to voice their opposition to the occupation of Afrin. The hostile aggression ordered by the AKP-MHP fascism against the peoples of the Middle East, especially the Kurds, will be protested. The occupation of Afrin has shown the genocidal character of the AKP-MHP fascism and people will reject this.

The occupation of Afrin has become an aggression revealing the hostility against Kurds and against democracy. With the occupation of Afrin the AKP-MHP fascism has shown their hostility not just against Kurds but also against the entire Middle East. Which is why, opposing the occupation of Afrin means defending all the peoples of the Middle East and every human being against fascism.

Today, the great majority of the people of Afrin have been displaced from their beautiful, paradisiac lands to many different places. The people of Afrin were expelled and deported from their lands like the Armenians in 1915. The demography of Afrin is being changed.

Like the Armenians, the Kurds will first be reduced to a minority, then destroyed altogether. The few Kurds left in Afrin are used as a cover for this Kurdish genocide. The Turkish state aims at completely destroying the Kurds like it did with Armenians, Assyrians, Laz people, Circassians.

Since the plan of the Eastern Reform, this policy imposed on Kurds has taken a new dimension with the invasion of Afrin. After Afrin, Manbij, Kobanê, Tal Abyad, Serêkanîye and Qamishlo will be attacked and this shows clearly the fascist and genocidal feature of the AKP-MHP.

The occupation of Afrin has revealed how much effort is needed to stop the genocidal feature of the Turkish state. This is why it is so important to take the streets on 26 May against the occupation of Afrin. Everyone, beginning by Kurds, should participate in this protest.

Like 1 November 2014, World Kobanê Day, played a role in the annihilation of the occupation of Kobanê, so 26 May, Opposition Day against the occupation of Afrin, will be an important step. It will play an important role in returning Afrin to its citizens, forcibly displaced from their lands. Just now, only in Shehba, 125,000 Afrin citizens are waiting to return to their land. And other thousands of people have migrated to other areas of Syria and Rojava.

In order to normalize the situation, it is necessary to constantly oppose this occupation and keep the return of the residents to Afrin constantly on the agenda. It is also important to turn the resistance of the guerrillas in Afrin, into the resistance of all the Syrian people, especially Kurds. If the people will unite in a resistance front to counter the occupation carried out by the Turkish state, it would be able not only to rescue Afrin by to defeat the AKP-MHP fascism, and so remove the biggest obstacle to democratisation not just of Turkey but of the entire Middle East.

For this reason, on the Day of Action against the occupation of Afrin, we call on people to raise the fight against Afrin’s occupation, to go out and take the squares everywhere in Kurdistan and the world.”