21 November 2022
In consultation with the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK), the Kurdish Institute Brussels (Kurdish Institute) has addressed both European and Belgian-federal parliamentarians from the various political groups to help put an end to the new military aggression from Turkey. It concerns the airstrikes and bombardments on the Kurdish region in northeastern Syria (Rojava) that the Turkish army carried out during the night of 19 to 20 November 2022.
A military operation against the Autonomous Region of Northeast Syria is something that the local authorities and population in Rojava have long feared. The Turkish regime and President Erdogan had been preparing these barbaric attacks for some time.
The terrorist attack in Istanbul on November 13 was very clearly the pretext. An attack that no one claimed, but Erdogan was of course quick to accuse the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and also the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Women’s Protection Units (YPJ). Units that still protect us today against the terrorism of ISIS.
The catastrophic results of the November 20 airstrikes can be found in attached reports prepared by the Foreign Affairs Department of the Autonomous Administration of Northeast Syria. We also enclose a concise incident report from the Rights Defense Initiative Organization and a call from the Kurdistan National Congress addressed to the VN, EU, NATO and US. See below.
The Kurdish Institute Brussels is convinced that the addressed politicians also condemn this senseless violence and will raise our request within the European Parliament, towards the European Commission and the federal department of foreign affairs, to urge Turkey to stop this aggression immediately.