Report from, the Spokesman of the Board: Martin Lessenthin  

Frankfurt am Main, November 21, 2022 – After attacks by the Turkish air force on the town of Kobane in the Syrian autonomous region, the International Society for Human Rights (IGFM) warns of a broad military offensive by NATO member Turkey in northern Syria. Several people have died in the attacks. At the same time, Iranian Revolutionary Guards arbitrarily used extreme force and heavy weapons against the civilian population in the Kurdish-majority city of Mahabad in north-western Iran. IGFM condemns the massive attacks by Turkish and Iranian troops and demands an immediate end to the military operations.

While in the course of the current protests against the regime, revolutionary guards are using extreme violence against the protesting civilian population, NATO member Turkey is attacking targets in north-eastern Syria, thus destabilizing the entire region. Kurdish units there continue to secure the detention of fighters from the IS terrorist militia. “What IS failed to achieve in Kobane, Erdogan wants to achieve. It is about the destruction of Kurdish self-determination and identity!”, criticizes Martin Lessenthin, board spokesman of IGFM.

According to initial reports, tanks and mortar shells were used in the attacks against the Kurdish-majority city of Mahabad, houses were stormed and searched at night, and protesting people were shot at random. Protest in Kurdish-majority areas in north-western

Iran has been growing massively for weeks following the killing of Mahsa Jina Amini by Iranian morality police. The Islamist mullah regime has been fighting minorities such as Bahaí, Kurds or converted Christians for decades. However, the current attacks are specifically targeting Kurds and are intended to crush the entire protest movement in Iran.

The Autonomous Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria, also known by its Kurdish name Rojava, has for years been seen as a disruptive element for the Turkish government’s Islamist-nationalist expansionist policy. Minorities such as Kurds, Yezidis and Assyrian Christians have suffered massive human rights violations by stooges of Erdogan’s aggressive expansionist policies for years. “Erdogan’s aggressions against the Kurdish cantons and his simultaneous support of Islamist militias are directed against the values that NATO wants to defend,” IGFM spokesman Lessenthin concludes.

Further information on the human rights situation in Iran

Further information on the human rights situation in Turkey

International Society for Human Rights (IGFM)

Edisonstraße 5, 60388 Frankfurt a. Main, Germany

Tel.: 069-420108-0, Fax: 069-420108-33, info@igfm.de