Euro MPs condemn Turkish massacres


Devastation wrought by the Turkish state in Sur, Diyarbakır.

Members of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) condemned massacres of Kurds by the Turkish state in a debate in the European Parliament on January 20.

Cypriot MEP Takis Hadjigeorgiou said, "If the half million people in the region who are obliged to stay at home and under curfew are members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), we are not talking about terrorist action but a revolution!"

French MEP Marie-Christine Vergiat said, "The fight against terrorism is a bad excuse. Civilians are the main victims of the conflict, including many women and very young children … Five-year-old terrorists, who are they fooling?”

Basque MEP Josu Juaristi said, "The Turkish state is massacring hundreds of Kurdish civilians and the EU prefers to close its eyes and cover its ears; that is unacceptable."

Greek MEP Kostas Chrysogonos said: "The Erdoğan regime is causing the citizens of south-east Turkey to starve through the curfew and by attacking Kurdish villages with heavy weaponry and by encroaching on the rights of those people to their lives, personal freedom and safety … With its tolerance of these crimes, the EU is betraying its founding values of respect for human dignity and fundamental rights. Attempts to appease the Erdoğan regime are a mistake. The only language that he can understand is the language of economic and political sanctions."

Italian MEP Barbara Spinelli said, "I co-signed the appeal by 1820 Turkish academics, and can confirm there is world solidarity with the Kurdish people who are suffering a deliberate and planned massacre in dozens of cities for months. They are short of food and medicines and hundreds of citizens are even being denied burial."

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