Letter to the Editor: Your continuing silence on Afrin

First published March 20

I have sent you many polite emails asking you to speak out against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s aggression against the people of Afrin. You have never replied. More importantly, to the best of my knowledge, you have not uttered one syllable against this monstrous crime.

Now that Afrin has fallen to the Turkish dictator and his jihadi proxies, Erdogan is planning to invade the remaining Rojava cantons and also the Yazidi enclave on Mt Sinjar in Iraq.

Ms Bishop, please note well Erdogan’s threat to the Yazidis and ask yourself why it is that the tyrant did not lift a finger to defend them from genocide at the hands of ISIS, but threatens to invade to crush those who saved them from further mass murder, rape and enslavement.

Furthermore, Erdogan is carrying out his crimes with the assistance of the remnants of ISIS, who he has regrouped under the banner of the so-called Free Syrian Army.

Have not the Syrian peoples suffered enough at the hands of their “own” dictator and the jihadis who hijacked the popular uprising against him?

Why do you not speak out in the UN against Erdogan’s flagrant flouting of the UN ceasefire?

Surely you cannot maintain your silence? What will it take for you to act? What kind of world is it where a dictator armed to the teeth by your allies Germany and the UK can get away with such appalling actions against people who were the ‘boots on the ground’ in the battles against ISIS?

Why do world leaders yet again look the other way when the Kurdish people are subjected to oppression?

Why can you not even reply to polite emails on the subject? Are you not an elected representative who is accountable to the electors? I would like an explanation for your silence and your refusal to engage in dialogue.

I propose that Australia must follow Sweden’s lead and condemn the Turkish dictator’s crimes. Please summon the Turkish Ambassador and demand that Turkish forces and their allies withdraw from Syria. Please use you good offices in the UN to call for the enforcement of a No Fly Zone in northern Syria. Speak out publicly against the neo-Ottoman despot who is bringing so much suffering to an already traumatised region.

Afrin was an island of peace in an ocean of war. It had given sanctuary to hundreds of thousands of refugees of all ethnicities and religions from elsewhere in Syria. Women enjoyed rights not seen elsewhere in the region – and even in the West. Kurdish Afrin was also a beacon on democracy in an a region marked by dictatorship.

Erdogan hates all that and his jihadi allies are destroying something precious in the name of their loathsome ideology.

The Kurds, Yazidis and Christians are at particular risk. The jihadis’ are openly threatening death by beheading to anyone who will not adopt their foul brand of religion.

A dark night has fallen over Afrin and Erdogan will not stop until he has extinguished the light of freedom and democracy across all of Rojava and surrounding regions. He has already done so in Turkey itself.

Australia sits on the UN Human Rights Commission. We should start doing something to earn it. We have a moral imperative to act. You have the power to do so, so please act now.

Regards,

*Professor John Tully, is Honorary Professor/Educator PhD, College of Arts and Education, Victoria University, Melbourne