Kurds in Greece protest Turkish operation in Syria
About 1,000 Kurds, plus a contingent of left-wing activists, staged a protest in the northern city of Thessaloniki against the Turkish invation of Syria.
The protesters carried banners condemning the “slaughter” in the Syrian region of Rojava, occupied by the Kurds, and which the Turks have invaded. “Where is the UN?” one banner, in English, demanded. Children also carried banners demanding that Turkey stop killing children.
The protesters burned pictures of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and shouted slogans against him, calling him a dictator, a fascist and an ISIS supporter.
They repeated the photo burning and slogans outside the Turkish consulate. Both premises were guarded by police forces.
“We are protesting against the massacre in Rojava, to pressure western societies to put a stop to this. We want to show that our brothers and sisters there are not alone,” Murad Bora, a Kurd from Diyarbakir, Turkey, who lives in Greece, told the Associated Press. He said he believes Erdogan was “given the green light” for his operation because “the system still wants him.”
In the capital Athens, close to 2,000 Kurds, according to police, and leftist activists marched to the Turkish embassy, in the city center, but police prevented them from getting too close. They dispersed after a peaceful protest. A small contingent of 150 protesters also marched to the US Embassy.
[AP]
