{"id":8577,"date":"2016-04-29T13:42:16","date_gmt":"2016-04-29T12:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=8577"},"modified":"2016-04-29T13:46:49","modified_gmt":"2016-04-29T12:46:49","slug":"free-%d3%a7calan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=8577","title":{"rendered":"Free \u00d3\u00a6calan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At the launch of the UK-based campaign to free imprisoned Kurdish leader, Abdullah \u00d3\u00a6calan, on Monday night (April 25), a standing-room only crowd in the House of Commons heard international speakers condemn the UK and European governments\u00c2\u00a0 for their failure to condemn Turkish President Erdogan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s genocidal assault on the Kurdish population.<\/p>\n

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They included Kurdish MP, Dilek \u00d3\u00a6calan and Kamuran Yuksek of the DBP. European governments and the European Commission were accused of turning a blind eye to the murder of thousands of innocent civilians in south-east Turkey in return for Erdogan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cooperation in preventing refugees escaping the Middle East conflict from crossing into Europe.<\/p>\n

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The new campaign to free \u00d3\u00a6calan enjoys cross-party support in the British Parliament.<\/p>\n

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Unite and GMB, the unions at the forefront of the initiative, believe there must be a negotiated solution to the Kurdish question and that the presence of \u00d3\u00a6calan, as the undisputed leader of the Kurdish people, is essential for any peace process to succeed.<\/p>\n

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\u00d3\u00a6calan has been incarcerated in the notorious Imrali Island prison for 17 years since being abducted In Kenya. During that time, and despite spending much of it in solitary confinement, he has remained consistent in his advocacy of a peaceful route to reconciliation.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe launch of this campaign is an historic moment that signals the full engagement and support of the trade union movement and wider civil society in the campaign for the release of imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah \u00d3\u00a6calan,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite international director Simon Dubbins.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe latest wave of unrestrained violence and repression by the Turkish government against the Kurdish population, and indeed against all progressive and democratic forces in Turkey, is outrageous and has to stop,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Turkish government needs to understand that they will not resolve this conflict through force and that only a negotiated peace settlement offers any prospect of a better future, and that for a real peace process to begin Abdullah \u00d3\u00a6calan must be released in order to play the role that only he can play,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Dubbins went on to say.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are confident that this will quickly become a mass national and international campaign and urge all those interested in a better future in the region to offer their full support.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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GMB international officer Bert Schouwenburg noted that the British state bears “heavy responsibility for the plight of the Kurds in Turkey”.<\/p>\n

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“One hundred years ago, the infamous Sykes-Picot agreement carved up Kurdistan from the remains of the Ottoman Empire and left its people stateless in the countries we now know as Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.<\/p>\n

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“This century, British participation in the appalling attacks on Iraq and Libya has unleashed a spiral of violence that has led to millions of refugees leaving the devastation of war-torn Syria,” he added.<\/p>\n

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“Instead of supporting the\u00c2\u00a0 utterly cynical policy of allowing President Erdogan to massacre the Kurds and support ISIS, in return for stopping those refugees from getting into Europe, the British Government should be making every effort to arrive at a negotiated solution to the problems of the Middle East,” Schouwenburg went on to say.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Kurdish involvement in those negotiations is essential because they represent a viable secular alternative for the region as a whole. For that to happen Abdullah \u00d3\u00a6calan must be released and Turkish repression of his people must cease.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the launch of the UK-based campaign to free imprisoned Kurdish leader, Abdullah \u00d3\u00a6calan, on Monday night (April 25), a standing-room only crowd in the House of Commons heard international speakers condemn the UK and European governments\u00c2\u00a0 for their failure to condemn Turkish President Erdogan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s genocidal assault on the Kurdish population.   They included Kurdish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8578,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[158],"wps_subtitle":"Unite helps launch campaign in support of Kurdish people","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8577"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8577"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8579,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8577\/revisions\/8579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}