Activists in Wuppertal protest media silence about Turkish attacks

For six months now, villages in the region around the Qandil Mountains in southern Kurdistan have been bombed by the Turkish army almost every day. The destruction of livelihoods and the use of chemical weapons have already led to the displacement of thousands of people.

In the German media, apart from a few reports at the beginning of the occupation operation, the attacks are not reported – and if they are, they are only presented as a conflict between Turkey and the PKK. But the attacks by the NATO partner are not only directed against the guerrilla-controlled Medya Defense Areas, but also against densely populated settlement areas.

Turkish war of aggression and media silence

In order to break this silence and expose the human rights violations carried out by Turkey, Kurdish activists in Wuppertal held a small rally in front of the state studio of West German Broadcasting (WDR) on Friday evening. “We are standing here in front of the WDR office because we want to break the wall of silence,” said one of the participants at the beginning of the action and read a statement from the group. “For around forty years the Turkish state has been waging a war against the Kurdish people with the aim of exterminating the Kurds. Whether through assimilation or by means of tanks and bombs – it is a matter of removing the Kurdish people from history.”

The statement added: “The Turkish state is getting the support of the German state. A tradition that has continued uninterrupted from the German Empire through the Nazi regime to the present day. Deliveries of weapons, ammunition and other military and security technology, generous financial resources as well as logistic and political backing for the Turkish rulers on the international stage have been guaranteed by the various German governments.”

Activists spoke with the head of the WDR regional studio and a dossier on the use of poison gas and attacks with chemical weapons by the Turkish army was presented. The activists said that they will continue their engagement against media silence in Germany.