Elected MPs and Co-mayors have launched a hunger strike in front of the UN Geneva Offices yesterday to support Afrin under genocidal attacks by the Turkish state.

Former HDP Muş MP and HDK-Europe Spokesperson Demir Çelik, HDP Şırnak MP Faysal Sarıyıldız, HDP Van MP Özdal Üçer, Cizre Co-mayor Leyla İmret, Karakoçan Co-mayor Burhan Kocaman, Suruç Co-mayor Orhan Şansal, Sur Co-mayor Fatma Şık Barut, London-Haringey Mayor Aligül Özbek, football player Deniz Naki, journalist Filiz Koçali and Feyzullah Tunç from the HDK are participating in the indefinite hunger strike in front of the United Nations (UN) Geneva Offices to support Afrin under invasion by the Turkish state and their allied gangs. Many Kurdistanis and allies also support the protest of the elected officials that continues on its second day.

Participants of the hunger strike point out that the UN has become a party to the massacre in Afrin in the banners they hung at the scene and with the slogans they chant against the Turkish state.

Speaking to ANF about the purpose of the action, HDP Şırnak MP Faysal Sarıyıldız stressed that the Turkish state under the United Nations trampled on the UN’s foundation principles in the Middle East today as it invaded the safest places of Syria by ignoring the international law.

Recalling that the hunger strike in Geneva called for action by the UN that remains silent on all the happenings, Sarıyıldız said: “The Turkish state invades Afrin and settles Salafists in the place of the local people. Going beyond that, the Turkish state is committing massacres and forcing the displaced people to emigrate. They seek to change the demographics of Afrin and, most importantly, they fuel the war in the Middle East. We are here to voice our reaction against these developments, to urge the UN to embrace its own principles and comply with the ceasefire resolution of the UNSC.”

London’s Haringey Municipality Mayor Aligül Özbek said their main goal was to make the UN go into action in the face of the developments in Afrin.

Özbek said the UN was also responsible for what is happening in Afrin at the moment, adding;

“Remaining silent on what is happening in Afrin, the UN has ignored the war and crime against humanity in Afrin. With the hunger strike we have launched, we urge the UN to serve for its raison d'être and act against the Turkish state. We denounce that UN’s silence is unacceptable while a massacre is being perpetrated and children are being killed in Afrin. The UN must urgently impose sanctions on the Turkish state. We will never remain silent on the war and crime against humanity that is taking place in Afrin.”

Demands of the hunger strikers are;

- Afrin airspace should be closed for flights.

- The UN should send an observation force to Afrin.

- The Red Cross should intervene as soon as possible to fulfill the vital needs of hundreds of thousands of people who have had to leave Afrin and are now living out in the elements.

- The people of Afrin who were pushed out of their homes should be allowed to return home.

- As part of the protection of the right to individual property, homes, shops and other assets that have been usurped should be returned to their owners.

- Security measures should be taken to ensure that the people returning home will not suffer torture, disappearances, killings or attacks.

- People not from Afrin should not be allowed to settle in anywhere else other than the UN-monitored camps to avoid the change in Afrin’s demographic make up.

- A UN commission should be formed to investigate the violations of the right to life for the civilians who suffered 2 months of attacks and the war crimes.