A “We won’t bend for Turkey” march was held by Riseup4RojavaFinland and Aurora Helsinki along with the local Kurdish community in Helsinki.

Two hundred people came together to march from Senaatintori to the Turkish embassy and to show, said the organizers, "their solidarity with the Kurdish movement against the attacks by the fascist Turkish state and demanded arms trade between Finland and Turkey to be stopped, as well as condemning the attacks on freedom of expression by the Finnish police."

The police reacted with dozens of officers in riot gear armed with FN303 anti-riot weapons, said the organizers in a statement, adding that when "a performance against the Turkish government was about to start, the police attacked the performers and “arrested” a doll depicting the Turkish dictator Erdogan as well as a person who tried to film a fascist counter-demonstrator."

According to the police, the doll was "committing the crime of defamation against the Turkish dictator, Erdogan." The internationalist youth managed to push the police back and the performance went on.

The statement by Riseup4RojavaFinland and Aurora Helsinki said: "The police have taken the same stance it did 4 months ago in the 'Helsinki without nazis' march, where it tried to force the Kurdish community to hide the flags of PKK, KCK and YPG/YPJ.

We, Riseup4RojavaFinland and Aurora Helsinki condemn the actions of the fascist police, who will do anything Erdogan asks them to, just to get Finland a place in the imperialist club of war criminals and dictators, the NATO. We call for all internationalists who support the Kurdish struggle for democracy, ecology and freedom of women to take a stance against police repression from Helsinki to Amed, from Oulu to Tehran. We call for you to rise up in protest against the fascist structures of the capitalist nation-state both in Europe and in the middle-east."