As attacks on North and East Syria continue, the humanitarian crisis in the besieged city of Kobanê is deepening by the day. Access to basic needs such as water, electricity, bread, and heating has become almost impossible, while hospitals are facing a severe shortage of medicines. Because no humanitarian corridor has been opened, patients and newborn babies are unable to access life-saving treatment.
Members of the Diyarbakır (Amed) Health Platform said that “war is a public health issue,” emphasizing that the ongoing situation is affecting millions of people and must be brought to an end.
The ongoing wars are not regional, they will affect everyone
Mehmet Şerif Demir, a member of the Central Council of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), said that war should not be seen as a purely regional issue, stressing that its consequences extend far beyond a single geography. Demir said, “As the Turkish Medical Association has consistently stated, war is a public health issue. War destroys life in every sense. Civilians suffer severe harm. What is happening today in Kobanê may affect all of humanity in other parts of the world tomorrow.”
Demir stated that international health organizations must see, hear, and respond to the situation in Kobanê, calling for urgent action. He said: “A humanitarian life corridor must be opened immediately, and the embargo must be lifted. The United Nations, the World Medical Association, and all international health organizations must step in without delay. Even under conditions of war, health workers and health institutions must be protected. Today, however, this principle is being clearly violated.”
Demir also said that, as health workers, they have once again begun holding life vigils to prevent the deaths of children and to bring the war to an end.
We are facing a genocide
Fatma Yıldızhan, a member of the Diyarbakır Health Platform, said that a humanitarian tragedy is unfolding in front of the world’s eyes and that it is being carried out in an organized manner. She said ongoing attacks and clashes are placing the lives of people across the region under direct threat, adding that the area has been placed under a total siege and that no aid is being allowed to reach civilians.
Yıldızhan said, “There is a law of war. That law exists, in principle, to protect people. Yet what we see here is that the blocking of aid, the refusal to open humanitarian corridors, and the continuation of such a severe siege are deliberately evolving into a process that may amount to genocide. This is the concern that drives us.”
Yıldızhan said the situation in Kobanê carries the risk of a genocide against Kurds and against women, and issued a call to the international public, particularly to women.
Yıldızhan also said: “At this point, it is not only health organizations that must respond. Everyone with a conscience, everyone who stands for peace and freedom, must react and extend a hand. We must move beyond reactions limited to social media and push for ways to physically reach the area.”
Yıldızhan said that every moment spent in a state of “wait and see” can cost the life of a child or a woman and may even result in sexual violence against women. She said: “We have seen this before. The women of Kobanê sacrificed themselves for the whole world in 2015. Today, we are at a point where we must stand by them. For this reason, we call on all women’s organizations, in the spirit and ethics of sisterhood, to help break the siege on Kobanê and to save women.”