Scottish MEP Julie Ward spoke at the European Parliament during the plenary debate on Syria and reminded that Anna Campbell’s remains are still in Afrin. 

Ward chose to talk about the young British woman Anna Campbell, who was “killed by Turkish forces whilst defending the city of Afrin with the YPJ” a year ago on 16 March. 

Ward in her speech said:  “Anna was a passionate campaigner for social justice who was so sickened by the terrible protracted war in Syria and the untold human suffering that she had decided to dedicate her youthful energy to working with the democratic Kurdish forces in northern Syria, the same forces who mounted the only credible opposition to Da’esh and Assad in the region.”

Stressing that it is the Kurds who liberated the Yazidi people trapped on Mount Sinjar, Ward added: “It is they who changed the course of the war on a hilltop in Kobane. It is they who are now rebuilding society in Rojava with women at the heart of a new model of democracy.”

Ward added: “I know all this not because I read it in a book or newspaper, but because I led a women’s peace mission there last May and saw the social and physical reconstruction with my own eyes.”

The Scottish MEP ended her remarks by reminding that “11 months on Anna’s body still lies under the rubble in Afrin and neither the British government nor the Turkish authorities have the decency to repatriate her remains. I urge the EU to demand a compassionate response.”