Kurdish Solidarity Collective  is an initiative launched by international politicians, scholars and artists who came together to condemn Turkey’s aggression against Kurds and to call on NATO to revoke its ‘dirty deal’ with the Turkish president.

The group has now launched both a webpage and Facebook page and have decided to work permanently on the issue. Especially now when Sweden has changed its legislation. The collective will also organise events, seminars etc. 

This is a worldwide initiative and it will not be involving only political parties and institutions, but will also get in touch with NGOs, human rights organisations, women's organizations, civil society groups, because to protect common values there is a need for collective work and struggle.

In their declaration, the Collective underlines how "with support from NATO, the regime of the dictatorial Turkish president, Erdogan, is not only continuing its war against the Kurdish people and their allies inside Turkey’s borders but is expanding it to Syria and Iraq, even to Sweden and Finland."

The Collective "recognize in the Kurdish struggle for genuine democracy, gender liberation, and ecology is a struggle that concerns all of us in a time of rising authoritarianism across the globe. Today standing in solidarity with the Kurds means standing in defense of democratic futures for everyone."

Underlining that "the Kurdish struggle, for its part, is a struggle for democracy, gender liberation, and ecology, all of which are significantly threatened around the world in the twenty-first century," the Collective says that "in contrast to the rising tide of right-wing politics based on nationalism, misogyny and racism, the Kurds and their allies in Rojava (Northern Syria) and throughout Syria have established an inclusive model of governance known as “democratic confederalism” and so have become a beacon of hope for democratic struggles around the world."

Therefore, the Collective stands "with the Kurds against NATO’s enabling of the Erdogan regime’s policy of occupation and annihilation. We oppose the murderous Turkish operations in Iraq that aim to kill those who defended the world against ISIS when no one else responded to calls for help.

We demand that Sweden and Finland decline to implement Erdogan’s antidemocratic and illegitimate demands for the extradition of their citizens of Kurdish descent—neither we nor the peoples of these countries will tolerate it. Those of us who struggle for freedom, democracy and the right to self-determination derive our righteousness from the conscience of the peoples of the world, and we are much stronger than dictatorships.

We will unite against Turkey’s duplicitous actions that terrorize the legitimate representatives of the Kurdish people and their allies.

We stand for democracy and human rights and against war, expansionism, genocide, femicide, and ecocide. We call all who share that view to support this International Kurdish Solidarity Collective. Together we can defeat policies of endless war and ensure that what is happening to the Kurds today does not continue and does not happen to any other vulnerable groups across the globe, now or in the future."

The group's co-spokespersons are South African activist and women's rights activist Fazela Mahomed and Jürgen Klute, a former MEP from Germany.

Among the signatories are: Shirin Ebadi, Human Rights Lawyer, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2003, Iran; Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 1997, USA; Elfriede Jelinek, Nobel Prize in Literature 2004, Austria; Yanis Varoufakis, professor of economics, Member of Greek Parliament and MeRA25 leader, DiEM25 co-founder; David Adler, General Coordinator, Progressive International, USA; Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North, Former Leader of the British Labour Party, UK; Srecko Horvat, Philosopher, co-founder DiEM25, Croatian; Massimo D'Alema, Former President of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic, Italy; Gregor Gysi, MP Germany, former Co-Chair of Die Linke and former Chair of the European Left, Germany; Karl-Heinz Lambertz, President of the Parliament of the German-speaking Community of Belgium; Zingiswa Losi, President of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), S-Africa; Amineh Kakabaveh, Member of the Sweden Parliament, Sweden; Ögmundur Jónasson, Former Minister of Justice, Iceland; Pierre Laurent, Vice-President of the Senat, President of the National Council of PCF, France; Jonas Staal, Artist, Founder New World Summit, Netherlands; Ken Loach, Film Director and Screenwriter, UK; Robert Daza, Senator of the Republic of Colombia; Vincenç Vidal, Member of Senate of Spain; Leo Gabriel, Anthropologist and Member of the Inernational Council of WSF, Austria; Paolo Ferrero, Former Minister, Vice President of the European Left party, Italy; Debbie Bookchin, Journalist and Author, USA.