Over five thousand people took to the streets in the French city of Marseille on Thursday in protest at the increasingly ongoing chemical weapons attacks by the Turkish state in the guerrilla-controlled Medya Defense Zones in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq).

The demonstration was organized as part of widespread protests after the HSM's (People's Defense Centre) announcement of the death of 17 guerrillas by Turkish chemical weapons most recently.  Kurdish patriots joined the protest by boycotting schools and working places.

Demonstrators wearing white clothes to point to chemical attacks carried a coffin with the inscription “Death to KDP betrayal” and banners denouncing the international silence on the Turkish massacre of the Kurds with chemical weapons.

Demonstrators staged a sit-in in the city center and closed the road to traffic for five minutes before leaving the coffin in front of the governor’s office.

In a speech during the rally, Zozan Serhat, spokesperson of the Kurdish Women’s Movement in Europe (TJK-E), urged people to be the voice of the guerrilla.

Calling on European countries to abandon their anti-Kurdish policy, Serhat said, “Take your chemical weapons out of Kurdistan. Stop the massacre of Kurdish youth.”