The Coordinators of the Kurdish Working Group in the European Parliament, MEPs Andreas Schieder (Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament, Per Clausen (The Left group in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL) and Leoluca Orlando (Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance) sent a letter to Kaja Kallas, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, underlining the “situation in Aleppo as well as the attacks on Kurdish peace processes in both Turkey and Syria.”
The letter said: “Just over a year ago, the world welcomed the fall of Bashar al-Assad and invested hopes that, despite their origins, Ahmed al-Sharaa (al-Jolani) and his followers would finally bring peace to Syria. Less than a year ago, the prospect of peace between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) became international news.
But, as we begin this new year, the prospects for peace in both Syria and Turkey are facing concerted attack. Fighters under the banner of the Syrian Army – and in the main part funded by Turkey – have put the two autonomous and predominantly Kurdish neighbourhoods of Aleppo under siege, and have been pounding civilian areas with heavy weapons in a fatal and bloody attack. Meanwhile, the Turkish government, which is yet to make any positive changes in response to the PKK’s decision to dissolve, is demanding that no peace is possible in Turkey unless the Kurds in Syria give up their weapons and possibility of self-defence, and submit themselves to the Syrian Transitional Government. This is a government that has demonstrated its disdain for democracy and proved its contempt for ethnic and religious minorities through bloody attacks against the Alawites and the Druze, and now against the Kurds. All those who have been struggling so hard for peace are calling on international organisations, such as the European Union, to do all they can to bring an end to the ongoing violence and facilitate genuine peace negotiations.”
The MEPs called “on the European Union to put pressure on Turkey to stop these attacks, and instead to let the Syrian Government enter into genuine negotiations with the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. We also call on member states to take account of these realities in their interactions with the Syrian Transitional Government and not to allow aggression and ethnic discrimination to be normalised.”