We must stand against Turkish invasion of Syria
Chris de Burgh (pictured), singer, 71; Tito Jackson, musician, 66; Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, 60; Stephen Tompkinson, actor, 54; Dominic West (pictured), actor, 50; Andy Cole, former footballer and coach, 48; Paul Robinson, former footballer and England goalkeeper, 40; Vincent Martella, actor, 27. TURKEY’S impending invasion of the mainly Kurdish area of Rojava, northern Syria, is a terrible betrayal of people who, for five years, have fought against Islamic State, losing over 10,000 and suffering countless wounded.
IS is still not completely defeated and the Turkish invasion will provide the opportunity for it to revive. A revival of IS in Syria will also lead to increased attacks in Western Europe and the UK as the thousands of Jihadists, who are known to live here, will be inspired again to support the reestablishment of the Caliphate.
Turkey intends to ethnically cleanse the Kurds of Syria and replace them with hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees now living in Turkey.
It is using Jihadist groups to achieve this under the guise of the ‘Free Syrian Army’. This has already begun in the canton of Afrin which was occupied by Turkey and its Jihadist auxillaries last year.
Far from fighting ‘terrorists’ the Turkish state is attempting to destroy the one area in Syria where there is an attempt to unite all the various ethnic and religious groups in building a new democratic society, where everyone, including women, have equal rights and where the environment is respected.
Turkey is a NATO member. It is carrying out this attack using equipment provided by NATO countries. It buys its weapons through revenue earned trading with EU countries and providing services such as tourism.
The Turkish invasion must be opposed by all Western governments and a total boycott of Turkey firmly enforced until the invasion is halted. The Kurds and their allies must not be betrayed. LIKE all Probus clubs we are continually looking for interesting venues for our members to visit.
This year I took a slightly different approach which resulted in a very successful outing.
In my speaker finder role I came across the name of Trevor Ellis, a member of the Huddersfield Canal Society who had written a book and given talks on the history of the trans-Pennine railway and canal tunnels.
Knowing that there is a visitor centre in the village of Marsden at the Yorkshire end of the tunnel, I suggested our members go to the speaker rather than he come to us so that we could see what he would be talking about. I’d like to thank the local of the Canal and River Trust who manage the visitor centre and Trevor Ellis, who acted as speaker and guide throughout the visit.
This was the first time that the Canal and River Trust visitor centre at Marsden had organised a Probus Group event in this format, and with their help and that of Trevor Ellis we had a memorable outing. IF Barry Sheerman MP is the voice of sanity (
then I’m a Chinaman.