Vol. 81/No. 41      November 6, 2017

 

Actions protest seizure of Kurdish cities, oil fields

 
Kurds and supporters of their right to determine their own future from Kurdistan to North America and Europe have organized protests at U.S. consulates and embassies to denounce Washington’s complicity with the attacks on Kirkuk and other Kurdish cities by Iraqi troops and special forces and Tehran-backed Shiite militias.

In Erbil, Kurdistan’s capital, protests to oppose the seizure of Kurdish cities and land have taken place at the U.N. headquarters and the U.S. and Iranian consulates. Arabs and Turkmen joined the action at the U.S. Consulate Oct. 20, along with Kurds who fled Kirkuk in the wake of the assault on that city, reported Kurdistan24 news.

The U.S. must “recognize the will” of the millions of Kurds “who want to be free,” Mariwan Kestay, a member of the Greater Toronto Kurdish House, which organized a protest of 200 people outside the U.S. Consulate in Toronto Oct. 24, told the media. Protests also took place in Montreal and the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa, Canada’s capital.

Some 300 people demonstrated outside the Federal Building in San Diego Oct. 23. A large banner read, “Iraqi army and Iranian-backed militia are using U.S. weapons to attack Kurdistan.”

“We want a united and independent Kurdistan, but our neighbors are using our oil and don’t want us to be independent,” nursing student Rozhaya Ali told the Militant at the protest.

Kurds marched to the White House Oct. 22 and the Iraqi Consulate the next day. Washington has long opposed the Kurdish fight for self-determination, fearing its impact on stability and broader U.S. interests in the region.

Some 1,000 Kurds and their supporters took to the streets of Cologne, Germany, Oct. 22, while hundreds marched in Hamburg and Dusseldorf. Demonstrators in Berlin marched to the Iranian Embassy, protesting the role of Tehran-backed forces in attacking the Kurd’s fight for independence. The Iranian government wants to do everything it can to prevent Kurds in Iran from following the example of the Kurdish Regional Government.

Laura Garza in San Diego, Toni Gorton in Toronto and Arlene Rubinstein in Washington, D.C., contributed to this article.
 
 
Related articles:
Rallies hit Iraq, Iran attacks against Kurds
Washington gave green light to assault
 
 
 
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