Last night at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London, over 400 people were entertained by a stellar cast of comedians introduced by prominent campaigner and comedian, Mark Thomas, at a benefit event in aid of Heyva Sor, the Kurdish Red Crescent Moon charity. Mark Thomas, who has been involved with the Kurdish cause for many years, played a leading role in the campaign to persuade Balfour Beatty to pull out of the Ilisu dam project ten years ago.

At last night's event comedians Jeremy Hardy, Andy Zaltzman, Nadia Kamil, Josie Long, Tim Key and Nabil Abdulrashid had the audience in fits of laughter. Outlining that the reason for the benefit was solidarity with Rojava, Mehmet Aksoy, speaking on behalf of the Kurdish Students Society, made a stirring speech calling for support for Rojava, and emphasised the unique nature of the struggle being waged there. He said the revolution taking place in Rojava was an anti-capitalist, ecological one which was opposed to the idea of a nation state. He compared the resistance of the YPG and YPJ to the Spanish revolution, the Sandinista struggle in Nicaragua and the Zapatistas in Chiapas. Aysegul Erdogan spoke of the hundreds of women fighters who have died resisting ISIS, adding that the women fighters of the YPJ are fighting for the whole of humanity against a monstrous organisation. She also emphasised the importance of the PKK's 30-year struggle as regards developments in Rojava.

The evening concluded with the performers being presented with flowers and Kurdish scarves, and Mark Thomas being given the Kurdish Peace Prize for 2014.