Thousands of people took part in the Germany-wide "Defend Kurdistan" demonstration in Düsseldorf today against the Turkish war of aggression in southern Kurdistan (northern Kurdistan). The protesters had gathered in the morning in front of the DGB building for an opening rally. On the back of a truck, several speakers addressed the crowd, including representatives of KON-MED, KCDK-E, PJAK, the Yaresan Platform, the Yazidi Coordination in Europe and the Left Party. The criticism was unitedly directed at the so-called "Western community of values", which tolerates the war of aggression of NATO member Turkey in South Kurdistan and is seen as jointly responsible. In particular, the support of the Turkish regime by the German government was denounced. Afterwards, the demonstration moved via Steinstraße and Königsallee in front of the state parliament.

The march lasted a good hour after the start to the NRW state parliament. People of all ages were involved, many divided into different blocks, including artists of the Kurdish cultural movement TEV-ÇAND, members of the youth structures and activists of the Turkish left. Numerous people carried yellow placards with the inscription "Defend Kurdistan," and some signs also read the demand "No German tanks for Erdoğan's wars." The slogan that was chanted most often was "Erdoğan, terrorist."

Karamus: "The Fairy Tale of the Right of Self-Defense Against the PKK"

In front of the state parliament, the demonstration culminated in a final rally where prominent figures from Kurdish politics and diplomacy took to the stage. Ahmet Karamus, co-chairman of the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK), spoke of how the war of aggression that began on April 17 was directed against all Kurds and their achievements. "We know the fairy tale of the right of self-defense against the PKK. It is a fabrication. The goal is the destruction of all Kurdish achievements; the Rojava Revolution, the status of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the structures in Yazidis in Şengal included. The goal is the annihilation of Kurdish existence. The opportunity for this war waged from the ground and from the air with NATO resources, chemical weapons and support of local collaborators seemed favorable for the Erdoğan regime because the world is looking at Ukraine. Our call as KNK to the Kurdistan Democratic Party [KDP], the regional parliament and Barzanî is: Ankara, Antalya and Istanbul - places in which you demonstrated shoulder-to-shoulder with Erdoğan will go down in history as the sites of your shamelessness. Someone who shakes hands with the occupier of Kurdistan cannot be a representative of the Kurdish people. We consider this collaboration and betrayal as perfidy, which is against the blood of the martyrs and the will of our people."

Ilham Ehmed: "The existence of the Kurdish people is at stake"

The top Kurdish politician and executive committee chairwoman of the Syrian Democratic Council (MSD), Ilham Ehmed, was also in Düsseldorf today. She was greeted with the slogan "Bijî Berxwedana Efrînê" (Long live the resistance of Afrin). Ehmed described the phase that Kurdish society is currently going through as historic. "For the Kurdish people, it is a matter of being or not being. The Kurdish liberation movement has fought for great opportunities for the freedom of Kurds and all other peoples in the Middle East over the past decades. Today is the day to create a life according to these measures of freedom. If we do not succeed, we will not be able to escape collective annihilation. Therefore, we must not miss this moment when freedom is closer than ever before. The Turkish state, whose foundation is the mentality of genocide, knows only too well that the liberation of the Kurdish people means its end. That is why it is channeling all the resources it is given by NATO and the Western community of states against our freedom movement and the Kurdish people."

Turkey has crushed Kurdish autonomy efforts since its inception

Ilham Ehmed remarked that the fact that the Turkish regime invokes self-protection reasons against the "terrorists" in the Medya Defense Zones in order to legitimize a war of aggression speaks to the anti-Kurdish mentality in Ankara. The Turkish Republic has been bloodily suppressing the autonomy aspirations of Kurds and all other oppressed societies since its establishment. Think of Seyîd Riza in Dersim or Şêx Saîd in Ağrı. The Kurdish people have been the target of the Turkish state's extermination campaigns not only since the PKK. And even today, the existence of the PKK is not the reason that the Turkish state is attacking the Kurdish people, but the fact that the Turkish state is attacking the Kurds is the reason for the existence of the PKK. We are in the midst of a war of annihilation. The existence of the entire Kurdish society is at stake, not the existence of the PKK in the south. Everyone should realize this. All Kurdish forces parties, especially those in South Kurdistan, as well as the society in the diaspora are called upon not to miss the moment of freedom. If we lose today, we will not be able to stand up again."