1000s of Germans rally against Turkey’s war on Kurds in Iraq

Sunday, 09 August 2015 1:14 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 09 August 2015 2:10 AM ]

Kurdish protesters hold flags as they attend a demonstration against alleged attacks perpetrated by the Turkish army against Kurds, in Brussels, on August 8, 2015. (AFP)

Thousands of people have taken to the streets in the German city of Cologne to protest at continued Turkish airstrikes against Kurdish people in northern Iraq.

Around 5,000 people, mainly Kurds, marched through the streets in the center of the city on Saturday to voice anger against Ankara's unabated air assaults against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Iraq.

The demonstration was organized by the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an alliance of pro-Kurdish groups, with the slogan of “No to the war”.

A smaller demonstration was held in the Belgian capital Brussels.

Zubeyir Aydar, president of the People's Congress of Kurdistan and the march organizer, addresses Kurdish protesters during a demonstration against attacks perpetrated by the Turkish army against Kurds, in Brussels on August 8, 2015. (AFP)

Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said it “would be regrettable that Turkey's national peace process should go to the wall because of regional conflicts in the Middle East”.

Kurdish women hold flags and a placard with images associating Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with ISIL as they attend a demonstration against alleged attacks perpetrated by the Turkish army against Kurds in Brussels on August 8, 2015. (AFP)

On July 30, Selahattin Demirtas, the co-chair of the People's Democratic Party (HDP), had accused Ankara of using purported anti-ISIL airstrikes as a “cover” to bomb positions of the PKK and to undermine HDP, which made major gains in last June parliamentary elections.

Also on Saturday, a video emerged on social media websites, which allegedly shows Turkish Special Forces brutalizing a group of handcuffed Kurdish workers in Turkey's southeastern province of Hakkari.

Turkey recently launched airstrikes against purported ISIL targets in Syria as well as PKK positions in Iraq, after a deadly bomb attack attributed to ISIL Takfiris left 32 people dead in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruç, across the border from the northern Syrian town of Kobani.

A shaky ceasefire that had stood since 2013 was declared as null by PKK following the Turkish airstrikes against the group, narrowing chances of the two sides reaching a deal in the near future.

The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s. The conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead.

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