European Kurdish Groups Urge EU to Recognize Turkish Gov't Attacks on Kurds

GENEVA (Sputnik) — Kurdish groups from across Europe gathered today in front of the UN Office in Geneva to draw the EU attention to the Turkish government forces killing people in Kurdish villages, the president of the Kurdistan National Congress of Europe told Sputnik on Monday.

"People are killed, kids and women. [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan's governmental forces use heavy weaponry, tanks and artilleries to attack in the residential areas in Kurdistan. We gather here for three days to bring attention of the EU and UN and to urge them to stop this war conduct massacre of Erdogan's in Kurdistan," Delsha Osman said.

According to Osman, similar events are taking place on Monday in France’s Strasbourg and in several cities in Sweden.

"There is a need for international solidarity in order to halt Erdogan's forces from attacking Kurds' cities and to end curfews in the Kurdish districts… Kurds in these areas are lacking food and water, medication and free passage out of the city to the hospitals," Osman stressed.

The Kurds, Turkey's largest ethnic minority, have been striving to gain independence from Turkey. Tensions in the country escalated in summer 2015 after 33 Kurdish activists were killed in a suicide blast in Suruc near the Syrian border. Two Turkish policemen were later murdered by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which led to Ankara's military campaign against the group.

In January, Amnesty International said that tight security rules and cuts to services in Turkey’s Kurdish-populated areas were threatening the lives of some 200,000 residents. More than 150 civilians are estimated to have been killed during security operations in Kurdish territories under curfew, the watchdog said.