Westminster J&P supports rally calling for justice for Kurdish people in Turkey

March arriving in Trafalgar Square

Members of Westminster Diocese Justice and Peace Commission showed their support for human rights in Turkey at a march in London from the BBC headquarters in Portland Place to a rally in Trafalgar Square on Sunday, 5 March. The aim of the demonstration was to highlight the plight of the Kurdish people in Turkey. While the eyes of the world are focussed on the migrant issue, thousands of Kurdish men, women and children have been persecuted and killed by the Turkish authorities. Curfews mean that people have been left dying in the streets with families are unable to help them.

Fr Joe Ryan, Chair of Westminster J&P Commission gave the following address to the rally:

It is good to be here in solidarity with you, the Kurdish Community at our rally today! As a Catholic Priest and currently Chair of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Diocese of Westminster, it is a privilege to be able to add my voice to those who are concerned with the inhuman treatment of Kurdish people by the Turkish Government.

In Turkey today sadly, the coverage of these atrocities are confined to the back pages or not even mentioned in our press. On the national television channels of the BBC, no reports are made of the plight of the Kurdish population. This is disgraceful; this is abhorrent.

The BBC, we are told stand for an honest independent news media service - it is not; it is biased; the coverage of news is screened in a very, very selected way. A blind eye and ear is turned to the plight of the Kurdish people. This is not right; this should not be the case.

NO FREE PRESS! It is sad to see how the clampdown on the Freedom of the Press has become so severe. Not alone are the journalists in jail - the Daily newspaper which has been critical of the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been taken over by a government backed operation. Freedom of speech is denied. No expression of opposition is allowed - gagging of the media is the order of the day. Democracy is denied in a country that prides itself in freedom of speech. What a tragedy - and only silence from other nations.

Exactly four weeks ago today, I joined an International Delegation of 12 people, led by Judge Essa Moosa of South Africa. As a young lawyer, he was involved in the freedom of Nelson Mandela.

We were in Istanbul, Turkey to seek a meeting with the Minister of Justice to discuss a way forward to get the peace movement back on track and continue negotiations for peace between the Turkish Nation and the Kurdish people.

We went to Istanbul to visit your leader, Abdullah Ocalan in his prison on Imrali Island in the Sea of Marmara.

We were denied any access to him - just as his lawyers have not been allowed to visit him in the last five years - and as his family have been denied any visits for the past 14 months.

He is now 17 years in prison in solitary confinement - his treatment is a denial of all human rights and every human convention from Geneva to every civilised nation on our planet this is not right.

Abdullah Ocalan has written and given a PEACE Plan from his prison cell. He is a key player in the peace process - not just in Turkey - but where ever Kurdish people live - here in the UK, Syria, Iran, Iraq and beyond.

He must be released from prison. I had the privilege of being one of the four signatories in Brussels to launch the Freedom of Abdullah Ocalan Campaign.

I was present in Strasbourg when we presented 10.3 million signatures to the Council of Europe to demand the immediate release of Abdullah Ocalan. We still wait - we still struggle; we will not give up the demand.

I am glad to be in solidarity with your Kurdish dreams - dreams of freedom and human rights for all.