KURDISH communists were among those teargassed by security forces in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq on Saturday, during protests against Turkey’s invasion. 

They hit out at the international silence over the ongoing bombardment of Iraqi Kurdistan, which has seen daily bombings of Kurdish villages for the last 14 months amid allegations of the use of chemical weapons and other atrocities. 

Protesters blocked a road in Slemani as part of a global day of action, but they were met with heavy-handed security forces who sprayed them with teargas to break up the demonstration, which marched along Salim Street, Slemani’s main thoroughfare. 

Ankara is also threatening an imminent attack on the Manbij region of northern Syria to create a 30km buffer zone near its border.

Kurdish left party Tevgera Azadi co-chair Tara Husen said her organisation would continue to oppose Turkey’s de facto occupation and expose the collusion of the regionally dominant Kurdistan Democratic Party.

Similar protests were held in the largely Kurdish city of Diyarbakir in Turkey, along with demonstrations in the Netherlands, France and Germany. 

Kurdish diaspora groups and supporters marched to the Greek Representation of the European Union in Athens to protest against the neoliberal economic bloc’s lack of action.

A dossier highlighting Turkey’s alleged war crimes was delieverd to the US embassy. 

Scottish National Party MP Tommy Sheppard said during a rally at Holyrood that it was “time to end the proscription of the [Kurdistan Workers Party] PKK and allow the voices of Kurds to be properly represented in national and international discourses.”

“Turkey is getting away with murder and most of the world does not even know this is happening,” an SNP statement said.

Dirk Campbell, whose daughter Anna was killed in northern Syria by a Turkish missile strike in 2018, headed a small march in London calling for the British government to stop arms sales to Ankara.