Monday, December 30, 2024
Why did we launch this clip on the fate of the Kurds? We are a European political thinktank, we try to provide solutions to politicians across Europe. There have been many hot debates over migration. We see a huge divide in Europe due to this debate. We see a recurring clash between those who want ‘to keep people out’ and those who ‘want to be welcoming’. While the tone of the debate is moving more towards ‘stopping people’, there is almost no consideration for the possibility to prevent the situations that force many people to flee to Europe. The situation of the Kurds is a very clear example of how our foreign policy supports and appeases extremist and totalitarian regimes and how that leads to people becoming refugees in Europe. Turkish oppression of the Kurds in Syria The situation of the Kurds is such that they are now oppressed or attacked by the Turkish and Iranian regimes. We are talking about 2 million Kurds in Syria alone that are now being threatened by the Erdogan regime. Since 1 December, 200.000 Kurdish people have been driven away from north of Aleppo by the Turkish backed ‘Syrian National Army’ (a collection of extremists and jihadists and actual ISIS fighters). This ‘Syrian National Army’ already committed many war crimes and crimes against humanity according to multiple reports of human rights organizations. As one can see in these reports, these crimes were first and foremost directed against the Kurdish population. Kurdish civilians (regardless of political leanings) were and are targeted by these Turkish – backed extremists. Consequences Now at this very moment, Turkey is attacking the Kurds in Syria as the Turkish regime refuses to accept that Kurds in neighboring countries can have the same rights as their fellow countrymen. If Turkey gets its way, 2 million Kurds will have to flee from Syria and many of them will ultimately come to Europe, even though the Syrian civil war will be over after the fall of the cruel Assad regime. Moreover, the ISIS caliphate will return and commit new attacks in Europe. The reason is that the Syrian Kurds and their Arab and Syriac-Assyrian allies are also the people who form the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The SDF is guarding 10.000+ ISIS fighters in prisons in Syria and also keeps custody of 50.000+ of their family members. It is clear that if the people who form the SDF are driven out of Syria, it will be impossible for them to keep these ISIS fighters in prisons. These ISIS fighters will escape and form again a danger for Europe. So the current policy to ignore the fate of the Kurds will have severe consequences for European security as well. One major reason that this will happen is that the Foreign Affairs ministries in EU Member States will have done absolutely nothing to stop Turkey for real. Yes, some may have released some statements, but not with the intention to actually take such measures against Turkey that it would really hurt Turkey to the degree that the Erdogan regime would be forced to stop its aggression against innocent people in Syria. This has to change, for the sake of the innocent people driven away in Syria and for the sake of our own security. The Turkish aggression against the Kurds must stop. The Kurds oppressed in Iran and Turkey And Syria is just one country in which our Foreign Affairs ministries have normalized and accepted violence and oppression against the Kurds by the Iranian and Turkish regimes. In 2016 the leadership of the pro-Kurdish HDP party was arrested (among them their leader Selahattin Demirtaş). Ever since every attempt by the Kurds in Turkey to gain genuine democratic representation at national level and governance at the local level has been systematically suppressed and made outright impossible. Kurdish mayors elected under HDP or DEM party banner have been systematically removed from office under the previous term and are again threatened of being removed after the local elections of this year. This means that Kurds in Turkey truly live in an apartheidsregime as they suffer under denial of or bad quality of many local services that are much better provided elsewhere in Turkey. In addition the systematic discrimination against Kurdish language and culture continues. Now a report of Human Rights Watch condemns that Kurds are being arrested for dancing Kurdish dances. This is a very recent development showing that Turkey is now truly an apartheid state: https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/08/15/turkiye-kurdish-songs-and-dances-are-not-terrorist-propaganda. Consequences of this Iranian and Turkish oppression The above means that there is no option for Kurds in Turkey to be full citizens unless they cave in to the pressure and assimilate completely and give up their history, language and culture. The Kurds in Turkey are already departing to Europe. Turkey is now the third country of origin in terms of those applying for asylum in Europe. From many reports it is clear that at least a very significant part of these are ethnically Kurdish. The problem is that these data are not registered as ethnicity is not taken seriously enough as a factor in both immigration policy and foreign policy. The oppression of all citizens of Iran is well-documented and well-known by all governments in the western world. What is less well-known is that this oppression hits non-Farsi groups disproportionally harder than Farsi. The Kurds, Arabs and Baloch especially as their resistance against the regime is most pronounced and organized. The prohibition of education of Kurdish and the continuing killing of Kurdish kolbars underscore that. A recent development is that Iran is now going after the Kurds that fled to Iraqi Kurdistan. Kurds who fled from Iran to Iraqi Kurdistan have now been forced into new camps due to Iranian pressure on Iraq. Just like Honia, many Kurds from Iran have fled to Europe. The continuing appeasement by our Ministries of Foreign Affairs towards the Iranian regime is appalling in the face of the consequences for both those driven to Europe as the citizens of Europe who have to contend with the costs that this creates. A value-based foreign policy It is crystal clear that we need to shelter and give asylum to those who need it but it is also clear that we need a foreign policy that helps to prevent situations that forces people to flee. It has been our privilege to work with many movements in the Middle East, brave men and women who fight for freedom. Movements who stand up against extremism and oppression by the extremist regimes of Turkey and Iran. The same regimes that are responsible for almost 50% of all asylum seekers in Europe. If we add the oppressive regime of Pakistan (which kept the Taliban alive for 20 years), it is certain that these regimes combined are the main cause of over 50% of the flow of asylum seekers in Europe (if we look from 2014 until now). That is why the movements that struggle for freedom cannot understand why our foreign policy continues to appease and even support these regimes. Because that is what is happening: our foreign policy is ultimately simply stimulating the flow of asylum seekers to Europe. At the moment the migration debate offers just two options: trying to solve problems in Europe or keeping them out of Europe. Neither is possible in reality. If all the oppressed come to Europe, we cannot cope with that. Neither is it practically possible to stop everyone from coming. Instead of blaming the voters or asylum seekers, we better focus on how a faulty and misguided foreign policy can be turned around so that it works on the basis of human dignity and serves families in Europe and outside Europe. Asylum seekers and migrants are coming from somewhere for reasons we can understand and in many cases prevent. Instead of appeasing those who support extremism and terrorism, we need to put relentless pressure on them. Political action So call on your Member of Parliament and demand that he puts real pressure on your Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so that they: Put real pressure on Turkey to stop the violence in Syria. Put real pressure on Turkey to stop the apartheids policy against the Kurds in Turkey. Put real pressure on the Iranian regime and put its Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps finally on the EU terror list and end all trade with Iran without exceptions. If we have a foreign policy that is not driven by short-term profits and maintaining the status-quo, but by a concern of human dignity (and therefore the interests of European taxpayers), we will see that less people will be forced to come to Europe.