Buses from all over Germany are setting off for Düsseldorf on Friday night and Saturday morning to bring people to the major demonstration in Düsseldorf against the Turkish chemical weapons attacks on the guerrilla-held Medya Defence Zones in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq).

The Democratic Kurdistan Community Congress in Europe (KCDK-E) declared 12 November a "national strike day against chemical weapons use". The Kurdish Women's Movement in Europe (TJK-E) is also calling for mass mobilisation in Düsseldorf.

"A CRIME OF CENTURY BEFORE THE EYES OF THE WORLD PUBLIC”

The women's movement described the use of chemical weapons in the Medya Defence Zones, which has become increasingly violent over the last two years, as a "crime of the century before the eyes of the world public". “One hundred years after the partition of Kurdistan in the Lausanne Agreement, the "policy of extermination is now meant to be completed," said the TJK-E, recalling the 17 guerrillas killed by chemical weapons in recent weeks and underlining that the guerrillas are the force that "put a stop to the policy of destruction".

"Today, it is the duty of the Kurdish political parties to leave their short-term party interests behind and stand up side by side and shoulder to shoulder against one hundred years of Lausanne. To follow in the footsteps of the honourable path of the brave Kurdish youth is to say: the guerrilla is our dignity," the TJK-E statement released on Thursday said.

"IT IS A NATIONAL DUTY TO EXPOSE THE COLLABORATING KDP”

The TJK-E criticised South Kurdistan’s ruling party KDP, which collaborates with the Turkish state, and said: "We would also like to point out that it is also a national duty to expose the KDP, which months ago confiscated the gas masks that were supposed to protect the guerrillas from chemical attacks and prevented the delegations that wanted to investigate the crimes against humanity from doing so and sided with the occupiers."

"SANCTIONS MUST BE IMPOSED ON TURKEY”

Appealing to the international community, the Kurdish Women's Movement in Europe said: "Institutions such as the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the United Nations should take immediate action against these crimes and sanction the Turkish state. The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), which has recently visited the region and published a report, should be consulted."

"THE EUROPEAN STATES ARE ACCOMPLICES”

The TJK-E accused the European states of being "accomplices of the system of extermination and denial against the Kurds for a hundred years" for political and economic interests and continued: "The European states have also been guilty by putting the PKK, which is waging a struggle for freedom for its people, on the terror list and thus legitimising the use of chemical weapons. They have been guilty by allowing Turkey to use any method against the freedom struggle, by criminalising and preventing the delegations that wanted to travel to the Medya Defence Zones months ago with humanitarian demands such as the prevention of these attacks, and by inviting the Turkish state to intensify its war crimes through their silence. As long as this policy of annihilation and denial, the policy of genocide against the Kurdish people continues, as long as this fire continues to burn, not only these countries but no corner of the world will be free."

TJK-E stated: "We call on health organisations, independent institutions and doctors who hold human life sacred to oppose this crime against humanity. The violation of the right to life, the most fundamental right, cannot be a right that is only written in conventions and on paper. We call on all lawyers in Turkey, South Kurdistan and Europe to take a stance in line with their professional honour."

"AN ATTACK AGAINST ALL WHO BELIEVE THAT ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE”      

The TJK-E underlined the universality of the paradigm of the Kurdish freedom movement and pointed out that: "The Kurdish freedom struggle has been waged unabated for fifty years. It is not only fighting, but also building an alternative system based on a democratic-ecological, women's libertarian paradigm. This paradigm is a model for all peoples of the world. Today's attacks on the freedom guerrillas are attacks against this paradigm, attacks against the conviction that another world is possible. It is about the destruction of an alternative. It is a universal attack against all who want a democratic and free life. Therefore, the struggle against it must also be universal."

"NO ONE SHOULD GO TO WORK OR SCHOOL ON 12 NOVEMBER”

However, the main force to crush Turkish fascism and to stop its crimes is the Kurdish people itself, said the TJK-E and continued: "On this basis, we call on all our people living in Europe, the Kurdish women, all women's councils, initiatives and organisations to rise up in the spirit of mobilisation and to expose this crime against humanity with continuous actions. In this spirit, we have declared 12 November as the national strike day against chemical weapons in Europe. We call on all the people of Kurdistan, the women, youth, old people, students, labourers, religious communities, intellectuals, democrats, socialists, oppositionists and all those who stand for humanity to participate in the mobilisation with voice and heart.

In Düsseldorf on 12 November, we will once again appeal to the international institutions to urgently fulfil their humanitarian, legal and universal obligations. On 12 November, women, our people, youth and our friends should not go to school or work, stop life and join this struggle for dignity."