Safeguarding Europe – exposing the growing threat of the Muslim Brotherhood

So I’m sorry that I cannot express myself in English – I will be speaking in French.

The Kurdish people are one of the most ancient peoples of the Middle East. Today they are divided between four countries: Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Their history has not been easy. For decades they have suffered persecutions, human-rights violations, arrests, forced displacements and massacres, all compounded by the absence of a Kurdish state after the First World War.

In 1920 there was a real possibility that a Kurdish state would be recognised. But the borders were redrawn according to the interests of the great powers, and in 1923 the Treaty of Lausanne was signed. That treaty eliminated any chance of creating a Kurdish state. Since then, the Kurds have been a people without a state, split across four countries, each with its own political system and policies towards them.

Let us begin with Turkey, where the largest number of Kurds live. They have faced severe political repression. Kurdish political parties and their candidates are regularly arrested, harassed or removed from office. A striking example is the arrest in 1999 of the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan. He was imprisoned on İmralı Island, held for years in an isolation cell under extreme conditions that continue to this day.

For many years the Kurdish language was banned from the media and from schools, preventing entire generations from learning their own culture and language. During the conflicts, more than a hundred villages were destroyed and their inhabitants forcibly displaced. Turkish nationalists often portray the Kurds as an “internal enemy” or a threat to the unity of the country. This has led to discrimination in employment, education, culture and politics. Turkey even fights against the very existence of the Kurdish people beyond its own borders – including in Syria.

In Iran, Kurds are arrested, often on fabricated charges. Simply participating in a demonstration or protest is extremely dangerous and can lead to the killing of young people. The permanent climate of fear weighs heavily on the entire population.

In Iraq, the Anfal campaign of 1988 deliberately targeted the north-eastern region with the aim of forcibly displacing the Kurdish population. There were mass executions, and the chemical attack on Halabja on 16 March 1988 became a symbol of that horror. We estimate that around 100,000 civilians were killed. Then, in 2014, the Islamic State committed a genocide against the Kurdish people; hundreds of thousands fled in terror.

In Syria, under the Assad regime, Kurds were systematically discriminated against. We were stripped of our nationality and forbidden from using our language. Even though our region is rich in resources, everything was taken from us. But since 2011, with the weakening of the Assad regime, we tried to build something new. We created a government in which people could participate actively – women played a central role – and the whole community, Syriacs, Arabs, Kurds and others, took part in decision-making and voting together. It was a truly humanistic and democratic process.

Sadly, this experience has been constantly threatened by Turkish military forces and by the regime in Damascus.

I’m going to take a little more time than one minute, because this is important.

Despite all the persecutions, the Kurdish people have always shown resistance and resilience. We have been persecuted precisely because of this resistance. We ask the European Commission to closely monitor the situation on the ground – this work is indispensable. We want concrete guarantees for the rights of the Kurdish people, and we want to work together with Europe. We want to work together with Europe. Thank you.