Almost one hundred years after the Treaty of Lausanne, a three-day demonstration of the initiative "Defend Kurdistan" against genocide and occupation will take place from Lausanne to Geneva. The demonstration under the slogan "Defend Kurdistan against Turkish occupation" will start on July 10 with a press conference. Numerous representatives of organizations and civil society institutions from Kurdistan, Turkey, Switzerland and Europe have already announced their participation in the action. In the course of the three-day march, seminars, meetings and concerts will take place, where the Kurdish resistance against the Turkish occupation and genocide concept will be thematized.

After the Kurdish European Association KCDK-E, the Democratic Kurdish Community of Switzerland (CDK-S) and the Kurdish Women's Movement of Switzerland (YJK-S) have also called for participation in the demonstration. In the call, the Lausanne Treaty is described as the "culmination of the thousand-year statusless state of the Kurdish people." On July 24, 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne established not only Turkey's current state borders, but also the division of Kurdistan. The agreement was concluded between Turkey and the World War I allies Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Greece, Romania and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. With the stroke of a pen, the Kurds became Turks, Iranians, Iraqis and Syrians. As it soon turned out, even the civil rights granted to them were only on paper. In fact, the governments of all four states pursued a policy of resettlement and expulsion, violent oppression, Turkification and Arabization against the Kurdish minority. Almost a century later, this state of affairs continues, especially in Turkey and Iran.

"A new edition of the Treaty of Lausanne will not be accepted"

The Kurdish community and women's movement declare in their appeal that today all four parts of Kurdistan are threatened by an annihilation attack: "At a time when the Middle East is to be reshaped by the Third World War, a new edition of the Treaty of Lausanne is being imposed on the Kurdish people. While capitalist modernity is in a chaotic crisis and seeks the way out in wars, annihilation and denial, the Kurds are advocating the concept of democratic confederalism put forward by Abdullah Öcalan, which promises freedom for all peoples. With the strategy of the third way and the model of a democratic nation in the Middle East, a new world is being created. The Kurds are building an alternative free life step by step with Abdullah Öcalan, the young people fighting in the mountains and prisons, and organized structures in the diaspora. On this way they are accompanied by friends from Europe and the rest of the world."

The three-day march of "Defend Kurdistan" is intended to send a signal that a new edition of the Treaty of Lausanne will not be accepted, the appeal concludes.