People from Afrin rallied for the delisting of the PKK as a terrorist organization as a campaign for the delisting of the Kurdish movement is being waged worldwide.

IDPs from Afrin and members of local institutions gathered in the Ehdas district of Shehba on Saturday and made a press statement demanding the delisting of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (KDP) as a terrorist organization.

The statement in Kurdish and Arabic pointed out that the PKK is a movement with the largest mass in Kurdistan and the Middle East, saying, “Several states have labelled such a great movement “terrorist” despite the fact that it strives for democracy, ecology and women’s freedom. These states, Turkey in the first place, are using this decision as a weapon against those seeking freedom and equality.”

The statement continued, “As the People’s Initiative of North and East Syria, we join the ‘Justice for Kurds’ campaign against the classification of the PKK as a terrorist organization. We will conduct democratic activities in all villages, towns, cities and institutions. We call upon the European Union and the United States to delist the PKK in order for the obstacles to peace, democracy and human rights to be removed.”

BACKGROUND

The campaign for the delisting of the PKK was launched last November by the international initiative "Justice for Kurds" and is directed at the Council of Europe. The goal is four million signatures for the removal of the PKK from the "terror list". The campaign petition can also be signed online.

The Justice for Kurds initiative highlights in the campaign that the classification of the PKK as a terrorist organisation serves as a justification for attacks on Kurds and as a reason for war and leads to "endemic inequalities being overlooked and social problems not being addressed". The peace initiative is supported by internationally known personalities from politics, civil law, art and culture, including Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek, Afghan women's rights activist Selay Ghaffar, German international law expert Norman Paech and Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek.