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Maxine Peake and Debra Winger among women demanding UN action to stop Turkey's attacks on Kurds

MORNING STAR ambassador Maxine Peake is among more than 70 women and women’s organisations that have called for the United Nations to stop Turkey’s attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan and northern Syria. 

Hollywood star Debra Winger and US communist Angela Davis have also added their names to a letter sent to UN secretary general Antonio Guterres and the UN women’s commission. 

The letter highlights Turkish attacks on the Yazidi people who were subjected to a 2014 genocide at the hands of Isis and its air strikes on the UN-administered Makhmour refugee camp and Kurdish areas of northern Syria. 

“Turkish armed drones permanently fly over north-east Syria, Sinjar, and Makhmour, creating an atmosphere of fear and deep insecurity. 

“Civilian infrastructure, cars, and houses are attacked without warning. People flee their land because they fear further Turkish attacks and occupation,” the letter states. 

Ankara justifies the attacks under Article 51 of the UN Charter, citing the right to self-defence, despite none of the areas that are targeted having launched any aggressive acts against Turkey.

Turkey “instrumentalises the armed conflict with the [Kurdistan Workers Party] PKK for further military occupation and political intervention in northern Iraq, which further destabilises the situation there and deepens insecurity,” the letter stated.

Signatories rejected the UN-backing of Turkish aggression against the Kurdish people and called for it to condemn the cross-border attacks.

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