PRESS RELEASE 4th March 2016

National Demonstration Stop Turkeys War on the Kurds Break the silence!
6th March 2016, Assembling 12 noon BBC Broadcasting House marching to Trafalgar
Square for rally at 2-5pm.
Speakers include: Natalie Bennett Green Party Leader, Kate Osamor MP, Natalie McGarry
MP, Lindsey German Stop the War Coalition, Mark Thomas Comedian, Jeremy Hardy
Comedian, Tariq Ali, Peter Tatchell, Weyman Bennet Unite Against Fascism and many other
speakers from Trade Unions and other organisations.
Call to the Press: There is a civil war being fought in the cities and towns of southeast
Turkey. Fifty two round-the-clock curfews have been imposed by the central government on
Kurdish-majority communities; in some places for the last three months. The government has
used tanks, artillery, and helicopter gunships to destroy whole sections of its own cities
including Cizre, Sur and Silopi - supplies of electricity, water and gas are cut. Hundreds are
dead. People have been shot at even while waving white flags in desperate efforts to find food
and water.
Civilians have been trapped in basements while seeking shelter from the fire and bombs;
wounded people are burned alive, children shot on the streets, dead womens bodies stripped
naked for display, the Turkish state and army is engaged in a mass murderous war, not only
on young Kurdish militants, but on the civilian Kurdish population in front of the eyes of the
international community, which does not utter a word of condemnation of these atrocities.
The Kurds are the most effective force fighting against ISIS in the Middle East. They advocate
a secular, libertarian and gender equal, direct democracy model of governance, what could
only be considered as a solution to the darkness that has shrouded the region for far too long.
Selahattin Demirtas, the co-chair HDP (the pro-Kurdish party in parliament) issued a
video appeal today for attendance at this demonstration saying it would strengthen the
resistance of the Kurds.
Help us end the Turkish state brutality against the Kurds. Help us break the silence.
For more information and to arrange interviews contact Mark Campbell (07865 079415) or Zeynep
Kurban (07799 285812) or at media@stopwaronkurds.org.
Website: http://stopwaronkurds.org/

Twitter: @stopwaronkurds

Facebook Page

This demonstration has been called by Stop the War on the Kurds and supported by: Peace in Kurdistan,
Kurdistan National Congress (KNC), Scottish Solidarity with Kurdistan, Day Mer, GIK-DER/RWCA, National Union
of Teachers (NUT), Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport
Workers Union (RMT), Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA), Trade Union Congress International
Section, Greater London Association of Trade Union Councils (GLATUC), Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
(TUSC), National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN), Unite Housing Branch, Unison Islington, Stop the War
Coalition, Peoples Assembly, Unite Against Facism (UAF), Socialist Workers Party, Socialist Resistance, Plan C,
Revolutionary Communist Group, Left Unity, Green Party, Kurdish Community Centre, Halkevi, Roj Womens
Assembly, Kurdish Students Union, Alliance for Workers Liberty (AWL), Anti-Fascist Network (AFN), National
Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC), Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), Democratic Union Initiative &
PYD.