Activists Petition UN to Try Turkey's Erdogan for War Crimes

Activists, intellectuals and politicians are asking the United Nations try Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for war crimes against Kurds and alleged commerce with the Islamic State group.

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Solidarity groups from around Europe will attend a rally in Geneva as they submit the petition, signed by 50,000 people including Noam Chomsky and several top European politicians, requesting a war crimes trial before the International Criminal Court.

Peace groups, largely led by Kurdish women, have led several marches to bring attention and action against state violence in Turkey’s southeast. They submitted a request for help from the European Court of Human Rights when the town Cizre was under siege, but were refused shortly before 155 civilians were massacred by Turkish forces. About 300 civilians have been killed in Cizre alone since January, according to the Turkish Human Rights Association.

Widespread destruction has also been reported in the Sur district of Diyarbakir and in other parts of Kurdish-majority Turkey, as part of an operation to wipe out the guerrilla Kurdish Workers’ Party, known as the PKK. Entire districts have been under curfew and bombardment, political prisoners have faced torture and an increasing number of journalists have been arrested for speaking out against the president or simply recording the civilian toll of his war.

“His (Erdogan) attempts at blocking democratic methods and building an authoritarian regime that only he has a voice have been met with great opposition despite all that has happened, the peoples of Turkey do not hesitate in answering Erdogan’s plans with all their might,” Chomsky wrote in a letter of support for a war crimes prosecution.

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“Your fight against Erdoğan is especially important at this time because of his support for ISIS. Because Erdoğan’s politics do not only harm the peoples of Turkey, but creates a threat that transcends Turkey with his support for ISIS that stands against the hope for democracy and freedom in the Middle East,” he wrote.

On Tuesday, Turkey’s leading party, the AKP, announced that about 7,000 square meters of land in Kurdish districts will be expropriated to the state, adding to several tens of thousands of square meters already confiscated.