Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons, hosted a Newroz reception organised by the London-based Centre for Kurdish Progress. The reception was attended by the Kurdish People's Assembly Foreign Affairs Committee, MSD (Syrian Democratic Council) UK Representative Office, over 80 Labour MPs, community representatives, activists and academics.

‘GMB will continue to stand by your struggle’

Speaking at the event, GMB Union General Secretary Gary Smith emphasized that the union has been in solidarity with the Kurdish people for years and said, “We are honored to be with the Kurdish people during the Newroz celebrations. As the 500,000-member GMB union, we will continue to support the 'Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan' campaign. We are always with you in your struggle against oppression and imperialism and we will continue to be with you. We will continue to stand by your struggle. We reiterate our promise of solidarity once again.”

Mick Whelan, General Secretary of ASLEF, one of the unions active in the 'Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan' campaign, said that their first internationalist links with the Kurdish movement began in 1999 at an ASLEF conference. “We came out of that conference with the awareness that the Kurdish people have the right to self-determination and we have maintained our solidarity ever since,” Whelan said.

Representatives from the four parts of Kurdistan also spoke at the event, which attracted great interest from British politicians. Steve Race, Labour MP for Exeter and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Kurdistan, stated that they will support the Kurds' leading role in new social projects, especially in Syria, and that they are closely following the developments.

Feryal Clark, Britain's first Kurdish-Alawite female MP and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, also greeted the guests at the event and conveyed messages of solidarity.

The representative of the Syrian Democratic Council (MSD) drew attention to the developments in Rojava and Syria and called for keeping these issues on the agenda in parliamentary and political arenas.

“As the Kurdish community in Syria, we welcomed the fall of the Assad regime with the hope that a new pluralistic and democratic government would emerge. However, the recent massacres of Alawites are a sign that Kurds, Druze, Christians and many others are not safe. We call on the international community to put pressure on the current regime in Damascus to change course.”

The Newroz reception ended with messages of support for the struggle of the Kurdish people and an emphasis on the importance of international solidarity.