Peace in Kurdistan patron Margaret Owen OBE has written an open letter to US President Barack Obama, urging him to make an urgent investigation into the brutal massacre and kidnapping of hundreds of Kurdish men, women and children at the hands of US- and Turkey-backed Al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria.

In the letter she reminds President Obama that Western Kurdistan had, until recent provocations, remained peaceful under the leadership of the PYD and had become a safe haven for many Syrian’s fleeing violence in the worn-torn country. Turkish anxieties over the new project of democratic autonomy in Western Kurdistan should not justify the international community’s indifference to the massacre of innocent Kurdish civilians.
The letter has also been supported by several prominent politicians, academics and human rights defenders.

In the letter Owen writes that "As lawyers and as women human rights defenders working internationally to protect all people from violations of international law, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing in civil war and sectarian violence, we implore you to use all available means, and harness all the resources of the UN and the international community to stop the massacres of innocent Kurdish men, women, and children in Syria".

Western Kurdistan, under the democratic leadership of the PYD, continues the letter, "has been a haven for those fleeing the violence of militias, such as Al Nusra, linked to Al Qaida in other parts of war torn Syria. The Kurds of Syria have been the one voice promoting the equal rights of all religious and ethnic minorities in a democratic and just new post-Assad Syria".
It is also essential that the true role of Turkey in arming those al Qaida militias, such as Al Nusra is investigated, underlined Owen.
 
The letter is supported by, among others, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, Baroness Greengross, Jean Lambert MEP, Jill Evans MEP, Caroline Lucas MP, Kariane Westrheim, University of Bergen, Chair of EUTCC, Maggie Bowden, General Secretary, Liberation