At the October 2022 State Delegates Council, the Greens NSW passed the following proposal:
The Greens NSW notes that:
1. Kurds in Turkey still face discrimination in education, cultural and political life, and are denied the right to express their national culture through language, clothing and folklore;
2. Turkey has killed or imprisoned many Kurdish political leaders; and the current leader and co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, has been held in solitary confinement for most of his 23 years in gaol;
3. since 2016, more than 10,000 members including MPs and councillors, of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) – a party that supports Kurdish rights, feminism, LGBTI rights, minority rights, youth rights, grass roots democracy and egalitarianism – have been imprisoned, and some 6,000 are still held in Turkish prisons;
4. torture and ill-treatment of minorities continue in police stations and prisons in Turkey;
5. the Turkish government has been using military drones, chemical weapons and heavy artillery to bombard Kurdish civilians in northern Syria and northern Iraq;
6. the Kurdish organisations promote political struggle in terms of radical democracy that encompasses decolonisation, and cultural and civil rights;
7. the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a secular party that advocates for religious freedom, women’s rights, LGBTI rights and sustainable ecology, is not associated with any terrorist group;
8. the PKK’s armed struggle was born out of the Turkish state’s massacre, torture, incarceration, displacement and discrimination of Kurds;
9. the PKK has declared numerous unilateral cease-fires with the stated intention of having them lead to peace negotiations;
10. the states, “Reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial domination, apartheid and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle”;
The Greens NSW:
1. Recognises the ongoing injustices that have been done to Kurdish people by all the governments in the region and aim to assist to rectify the situation;
2. Supports the legitimate rights and aspirations of the Kurdish people in Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria to self determination;
3. Recognises that upholding the human rights and cultural rights of Kurds, and including all minorities such as Assyrians, Yazidis and Armenians;
4. Supports the Kurdish struggle for self-determination that will enable local communities to exercise autonomous control over their own assets and to link to other communities via a network of confederal councils;
5. Supports full equality for all Turkish residents irrespective of ethnic origin, religion or belief, race or gender;
6. Supports the removal of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) from the Australian government’s list of terrorist organisations;
7. Congratulates all those involved in establishing the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (also known as Rojava), for their strong commitment to democracy, feminism, environmental protection and LGBTI rights;
8. Supports the campaign calling on the Turkish government to free the Kurdish leader, Abdullah Öcalan, and all other political prisoners, and to commit to restarting peace talks between the Turkish government and the Kurdish Workers Party;
9. Condemns Turkey’s attacks in North Eastern Syria as they violate international law and calls on the Turkish state to abide by the two ceasefire agreements signed in October 2019;
10. Calls on the Australian government to support the Kurdish self-administered region in North Eastern Syria by calling on Turkey to cease all military actions in this region, to withdraw its forces from Afrin, Serikani and Grisipi and to renounce any plans to invade North Eastern Syria.
11. Calls on the Australian government to advocate for the re-start of peace talks between Turkey and the PKK in order to bring peace to the region and to allow both sides to come to a mutually negotiated agreement.
