Stop Turkey’s war on the Kurds

[Speech given at Kurdish solidarity rally in Melbourne, 12.09.15]

Regime killed peace process

Turkey is creeping towards civil war. This is a deliberate decision of the Erdogan regime. It killed the peace process with the PKK. At the start of this year agreements had been finalised to enable the guerillas to safely withdraw across the border to their camps in northern Iraq.

Government keeps PKK on terror list

[10.09.15]

On August 11, the Tony Abbott government re-listed the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) as a terrorist organisation. This means it is illegal for Australian citizens to belong to it, actively support it or raise funds for it.

The Kurdish Freedom Struggle Today: Introduction

[From Dave Holmes & Tony Iltis, The Kurdish Freedom Struggle Today (Resistance Books: Sydney, 2015)]

The eruption of the brutal fundamentalist 'Islamic State' in the Middle East has placed the Kurdish people at the centre of the political stage. The Kurdish communities in Iraq and Syria have faced the full weight of the IS assault. The Kurdish people in Turkey have also been inescapably affected by the struggle over the border. It has even had an impact on the Kurdish population in Iran.

The Kurdish Freedom Struggle: Oppression and Resistance

[From Dave Holmes & Tony Iltis, The Kurdish Freedom Struggle Today (Resistance Books: Sydney, 2015)]

The Kurds are the largest ethnic group without a state of their own. They are divided between Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. There is also a sizeable diaspora.

Turkey: War on the Kurds or a Serious Peace Process?

[From Dave Holmes & Tony Iltis, The Kurdish Freedom Struggle Today (Resistance Books: Sydney, 2015)]

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) led by Recip Tayyip Erdogan, is an Islamic-based neoliberal party. It first won office in 2002 and ruled Turkey alone for 13 years. In August 2014, Erdogan became the first popularly elected president; Ahmet Davutoglu, formerly foreign minister, took over as prime minister. The AKP lost its majority in the June 7, 2015 parliamentary elections.

Turkey: Erdogan's ruthless bid to retain power risks return to dark days

[Green Left Weekly, #1064, August 11, 2015]

The outcome of Turkey's June 7 parliamentary elections promised so much. The leftist, Kurdish-based People's Democratic Party (HDP) resoundingly surmounted the undemocratic electoral threshold and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of President Recip Tayipp Erdogan suffered a sharp rebuff, losing its ability to rule on its own.

As Erdogan manoeuvres to retain power, Turkey faces an uncertain future

[July 7, 2015]

One month after Turkey's June 7 parliamentary elections, the country still does not have a new government. Ahmet Davutoglu of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) remains as caretaker prime minister. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan remains the dominant figure in the AKP and is actively manoeuvring to retain his party's leading position. The president is supposed to be an impartial figure above party politics but Erdogan pays scant regard to such constitutional niceties.