Medico: Turkish soldiers distribute confiscated material as aid

Medico International employee Thomas Seibert announced that the Turkish soldiers distributed the aid material they confiscated to the people as “aid from the military”.

The Turkish state, which hinders almost all humanitarian aid to Northern Kurdistan and Rojava and arrests aid workers, has dealt a blow to aid efforts with the trustee appointments. Meanwhile, the Turkish soldiers are putting on a show of “humanitarian aid” over usurpation.

Thomas Seibert, an employee at the aid organisation Medico International based in Frankfurt, Germany, spoke to the website Telepolis and said they were trying to distribute medical and hygienic supplies and construction materials in addition to the food supply in Kurdistan.

NO PERMIT FOR TRAILER TRUCKS, CONSTANT TRAFFIC TICKETS FOR RENTED MINI TRUCKS

Thomas Seibert said as Medico, they were trying to get aid material to places like Sur, Silopi, Cizre, Nusaybin, Dargeçit, Derik, Silvan, Şırnak and Yüksekova in Kurdistan, which have been reduced to rubble, and that at first they tried to do this with a trailer truck that belonged to the organisation. Seibert said the Turkish police didn’t allow the trailer truck through, citing that it was “too large”, and then they were forced to rent smaller mini trucks.

The Medico official said the smaller trucks they rented with local aid organisations were watched closely by the police and they received traffic tickets for different excuses every day, and that the truck owners had to pay these fines which were much higher than what they got paid.

TURKISH ARMY DISTRIBUTES THE CONFISCATED AID MATERIAL AS THEIR OWN AID

Thomas Seibert said the police conducted several raids on the trucks and warehouses with the aid material and that the goods were confiscated, and they were only able to get it back after days of efforts from their lawyers.

The Medico official said in some places, the soldiers distributed the confiscated aid materials to the people “as if it was the army providing them” and pointed out the immoral approach of the Turkish army.

THE WORKERS ARE ARRESTED AND CHARGED WITH “PKK MEMBERSHIP”

According to the information given by the Medico International official, aid workers are arrested in an attempt to hinder the aid going to Northern Kurdistan and Rojava. The workers’ phones are confiscated and Thomas Seibert said they believed the hindering to be the work of intelligence, and that the association that helped Rojava especially faced such obstacles.

Seibert said the aid materials sent to Rojava were stopped at the border with the excuse of “aid for PKK”.

NO LOCAL PARTNERS LEFT AFTER REMOVALS AND TRUSTEES

Thomas Seibert pointed out that they almost had no local partners left after the AKP government appointed trustees to DBP municipalities and removed mayors from office, and that the trustees were “not at all interested in” such aid work. Seibert said the disappearance of local administrations left the aid efforts “only with obstacles on the way”.

Seibert said the German government had no part in the aid efforts to Northern Kurdistan and Rojava and only worked with the KDP in Southern Kurdistan. Seibert also said that the KDP was enforcing an embargo on Rojava.

Seibert also criticized the approaches of European governments, especially those of Germany and Austria, and added that it was unacceptable that they pointed out the general oppression in Turkey but remained silent in the face of much more serious policies of oppression and massacres in Kurdistan.