Kurdish Canadians ‘the voice’ for Afrin
Immigrants rally in opposition of latest Turkish Syria offensive killing and displacing thousands
Yara Polo loves the peace she has found in Canada, but since January, the Kurdish immigrant has been at the forefront of weekly protests in Toronto.
The hairstylist, who came from Syria to join her sister here in 2012, has waved protest signs and shouted anti-war slogans at Yonge-Dundas Square every weekend in opposition to Turkey’s military action in Afrin.
Turkey began its offensive against the northern Syrian city in January, taking full control from the Kurds in March. Against the backdrop of Syria’s longstanding civil war, an autonomous Kurdish region at the Turkish-Syrian border was perceived as a threat by Turkey, which has had its own share of Kurdish insurgency movements.
“I don’t book any client on Saturday after 4 p.m. because I have to be here,” said Polo, 32. “My people in Afrin don’t have a voice. We need to be their voice so they can be heard and Canada will do something to stop the killing and suffering.”
The United Nations said Turkey’s latest offensive killed dozens of children and injured scores of civilians, displacing thousands of people. Human Rights Watch said people in Afrin are stranded, with limited food, clean water and medical supplies as armed groups working with Turkish forces loot and destroy civilian property.
However, Turkish officials said the action targeted only terrorist groups that have launched attacks on Turkey.
“Turkey is not an occupying force and unequivocally supports the territorial integrity and unity of Syria,” said Turkish ambassador to Canada Selcuk Unal. “We will continue our operations to ensure our border security, clear the region from terrorists and save Syrians from the oppression and cruelty of terrorist groups controlling the region.”
The Kurdish Canadian community, estimated at 30,000, has been holding weekly protests in Toronto, as well as Calgary, London, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver.
However, the rallies have so far drawn little attention. Community members have written to MPs, asking for a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but, like the international community, Canada’s response has been relatively muted. A statement by Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland in February urged “restraint” and called for full respect of international humanitarian law.
It’s not the first time and won’t be the last for Kurds to feel betrayed by the world, said Zheger Hassan, a political science professor at Western University and a Kurd who settled in Canada as a child with his family in 1992. After the First World War, Kurds were promised their own state under the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920. However, that never materialized, and millions of Kurds are now minority groups in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. In 2005, Kurds in Iraq were granted autonomy with their own Kurdistan Regional Government, however Kurds in the other three countries have been denied political, economic and cultural rights, said Hassan.
“The Kurds just feel abandoned again,” Hassan said.
Chato Wany, president of the Greater Toronto Kurdish House, said he has been inundated with calls from Toronto’s Kurdish community over the action against Afrin.
An engineer by day with a renovation business on the side, Wany uses social media to organize political rallies in Toronto. “I only get three hours of sleep each day, but we can’t sit home and do nothing,” said the 52year-old Kurdish Iraqi, who came to Canada with his wife as government-sponsored refugees in 1993.
“Our people in the Middle East do not have a voice. We are obligated to do this for them.”