Maat calls on the Turkish authorities to stop discrimination against minorities

Aqeel: The Turkish regime is dealing with extreme brutality with the Kurdish minority  

On the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which the world celebrates on the twenty-first of March of each year, the Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights calls on the Turkish authorities to stop discrimination against minorities. The Turkish regime has practiced discrimination, persecution and repression against some religious and ethnic minorities. On its territory, especially the Kurds, whom the Turkish government deals with with repression and arrests, and mobilizes its military forces on the borders with Syria in exchange for the Kurdish areas, taking the Kurds as a cover for military intervention in Syria, and the Turkish authorities deal inhumanly with the Kurdish minority on its land and outside its borders, in An attempt to exterminate an entire people.

It is worth noting that the United Nations General Assembly approved this day in 1966, in honor of the memory of 69 people who were shot dead on March 21, 1960, during their participation in a peaceful demonstration in Sharpeville municipality, South Africa, to protest the "traffic laws" imposed by the apartheid regime. at that time. Since then, apartheid has been abolished in South Africa, racist laws and practices have been abolished in many countries, and an international framework to combat racism has been built, guided by the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Ayman Aqil, head of the Maat Foundation, said that over successive generations, the Turkish authorities had dealt with extreme brutality with the Kurdish minority, and they were resettled, and many of their names and costumes were banned, and the Kurdish ethnic identity was denied, and they were referred to as “mountain Turks.” Akil added that the Turkish authorities The Kurdish language was banned, and it was distinguished in accepting job opportunities and universities, so that those who occupy high positions in the Kurdish regions are not Kurds, in addition to the marginalization that characterizes the Kurdish regions in most of them by the absence of development and rehabilitation processes, and it prevented them from free political expression and impeding the work of Kurdish parties in The state of its formation, and the absence of a constitution guaranteeing the basic rights of the Kurds, which increases the national tendency to integrate into society. In addition to that, there is no culture of coexistence.

Aqeel explained that the matter did not stop at the borders of denial of the cultural, social and political rights of the Kurds, but rather this marginalization was crowned with more military and security operations against the Kurds, and during the conflict between the Kurds and the Turkish government, food was prohibited from the Kurdish villages and towns, and many of them were forcibly expelled from their villages. Before the Turkish security forces.

Finally, Maat Foundation believes that despite the signing of global agreements to eliminate racial discrimination, there are still many people, groups and societies in all regions suffering from injustice and stigmatization caused by racism, and racial and ethnic discrimination occurs daily, which impedes the progress of the benefit. Millions of people in the world, and racism and intolerance can take various forms, starting with depriving individuals of the most basic principles of equality and ending with fueling feelings of hatred that may lead to genocide, all of which are forms that destroy life and crack the edifice of local societies. Combating racial discrimination is a matter of priority for the international community and constitutes the core of the work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which has called on the United Nations to pay attention to this issue since its inception. The prohibition of racial discrimination has been enshrined in all basic international human rights instruments, and these instruments place obligations on states. It is entrusted with the task of eliminating discrimination in the public and private spheres.

 Therefore, Maat Foundation calls on the international community to press the Turkish authorities to end the discrimination and persecution practiced against minorities, especially the Kurds..