The following statement was issued July 30 by the Socialist Workers Party candidates in Philadelphia, Osborne Hart for mayor and John Staggs for City Council at-large.

Turkey’s bombing assaults against the Kurdish people in Iraq and Syria, backed by both Washington and NATO, are attacks against workers worldwide. We urge working people to join and initiate protests demanding that the U.S. and its NATO allies immediately stop these assaults.

Claiming they are attacking the terrorist Islamic State, Ankara in fact is raining terror on the very forces that have fought to free tens of thousands of Kurds, Syrians and Iraqis, from the murderous control of Islamic State. The Turkish government fears the mobilization of the tens of thousands of Kurds within Turkey itself, who are inspired by the successes of fellow Kurds pushing IS back. The Recep Tayyip Erdogan government seeks to contain and control the Kurdish people and intimidate and silence all opposition to its policies inside Turkey.

The Kurds comprise the largest nationality in the world with no state of their own. Hundreds of thousands reside as oppressed minorities in Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. Washington, as well as the capitalist rulers of these countries, fears the impact of the advances of the Kurdish people in their just struggle for independence and control over their areas.

U.S. and Turkish hands off the Kurds!