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Open Letter: Kurds and Turks support Corbyn and Labour's manifesto

AS KURDISH and Turkish-speaking migrants living in Britain, we are proud to endorse the Labour Party’s manifesto. As migrants, we have borne the brunt of austerity over the last 10 years.

As austerity deepens, cuts are felt and inequality widens, Kurds and Turks, like all ethnic minorities, are scapegoated. Kurdish teenager Reker Ahmed was violently attacked in Croydon in 2017 and Baris Kucuk, another member of our community, was tragically stabbed to death this year.

Jeremy Corbyn has been a firm friend to the Turkish and Kurdish communities in north London for over 35 years. He has also shown great solidarity with the Kurdish and Turkish left.

He has supported the Kurds against Saddam Hussein’s use of chemical weapons and against Iran’s treatment of Kurds, and visiting Kurdistan many times, has met politicians from the HDP, Labour’s sister party in Turkey, whose members and MPs have been imprisoned in their thousands.

Corbyn’s support for the Syrian Kurds fighting Isis stands in stark contrast to Boris Johnson’s Conservative government, which has presided over arms sales to Turkey and defended that country’s invasion of Syria. Ankara, by attacking the Kurdish forces that are on the front line of the fight against the death cult, has paved the way for the resurgence of Isis.

A Conservative government would bring more war, more poverty and more racist attacks on refugees displaced by those wars.
We call on all progressives and anti-racists to vote Labour on Thursday.

CANAN SAGAR, musician
RUHI KARADAG, film director
SUNA ALAN, singer
SIBEL GUNGOR, councillor
FERHAN YETISAL, councillor
AYSEL KIRMIZIKAN, councillor
OZKAN ORMAN, artist
GULSEREN TAS, actress
AKIN OLGUN, journalist and writer
DENIZ CIFTCI, academic
ALAETTIN SIYANIC, journalist
AHMET GUVEN, writer
MIZGIN MUJDE ARSLAN, film-maker
TUGBA OZCIVAN, music teacher and singer
BARAN DURAN, musician
CEMI SALIH, DJ
BERGUZAR ERDOGAN, singer
HIKMET ERDEN, journalist
KAMIL KUPELI, poet
ZAFER ARMUTLU, solicitor
ALI HAS, solicitor
SIBEL GUNGOR, solicitor
SUNA TISKAYA, solicitor
ILKAY TIMUR AYDEMIR, solicitor-advocate
SEVCAN KAYGUN, solicitor
SAIM BASBAYDAR, solicitor
GUVEN ATES, solicitor
SUNA TISKAYA, solicitor
SEFARET YAMAN, solicitor
VESILE TEKAS, solicitor
ONDER KARPUZ, solicitor
SUNA DERINKURSUN, solicitor
RAUF KHALILOV, solicitor
BEKTAS CETIN, solicitor
SEVIM TOMBUL, solicitor-advocate
SILAN HAS, solicitor
DOGAN DOGUS, solicitor
AYNUR CELIK, solicitor
CILEM DOGUS, solicitor
YAGMUR HANIM BULUT, solicitor
AYCAN MISIR, solicitor
BERIVAN COSKUN, solicitor
HASAN YILDIRIM, solicitor
MAHMUT DOGAN, musician
SEVGI ULCAY, activist
KENAN HUDAVERDI, film director
SULTAN KARATAS, poet
FEYZULLAH CINPOLAT, Day-Mer community activist
IBRAHIM AVCIL, Gik-Der community activist
KALENDER ULGER, Kirkisrak community centre organiser
SULTAN CAKIR, teacher
DENIZ ENGIN, teacher
GUNER AYDIN, councillor
YUSUF KUL, accountant
Dr MEHMET KURT, London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE)
ARGUN CAKIR, postdoctoral research assistant at University of Bristol department of music
MERYEM KAYA, medical doctor
SRWA MUSTAFA (NERGIZ), civil servant
ATA MUFTY, journalist and activist
ELIF GUN, graduate and activist
ELIF SARICAN, anthropologist and organiser
KUMRU BASER, journalist
RABIA CINAR, proprietor
RANA AKSAC, psychotherapist
BANU AYDIN, therapist
MACIDE YUKSEL, senior psychotherapist
HANIM AKDEMIR, optic manager
OLCAY ANIKER, solicitor
ZUHAL BORUCU KOCADAG, manager
MERAL HALKACI, community activist
MEMET KARDU, Kurdish People’s Assembly community activist
NEJLA COSKUN, Kurdish People’s Assembly community activist
FATMA CAN, IT consultant
FERHAN YETISAL
SEVGI ULCAY, finance worker
FATMA AYDIN, chartered accountant
DILEK GUNGOR, nurse/senior psychotherapist
NURAN DONMEZ, mental health social worker
FIRAT KARABOYUN, accountant
ROJDA SIPAN, accountant
ILKER YADIRGI, accountant
ALA HASSAN, Kurdish Student Movement
ARI MURAD, television producer
BAVIL AHMAD, Kurdish refugee from south Kurdistan
AYCA CUBUKCU, associate professor of human rights, LSE
FEZILE OZBARAN, flight attendant
MUSTAFA OZBARAN, medical student
TIJEN BELIGH, interpreter/translator
DILEK GUNGOR, Nafsiyat Intercultural Therapy Centre
FERIDE KUMBASAR, consultant and research student
ALI DOGAN, medical doctor
OZLEM PEKBAS, independent domestic violence advocate
EYLEM DOGAN, phlebotomist
SEMA ATESSAL UGUR, freelance
BELGIN KOC, freelance
TULAY GULSEN, adviser
ESENGUL OZDEMIR, nursery teacher
Dr ZEYNEP KURBAN, Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult
OKTAY SAHBAZ, teacher
UFUK UYANIK, artist
BARIS CELILOGLU, stage director
MEHMET UGUR, professor of economics & institutions, University of Greenwich
TAHIR PALALI, musician and entrepreneur
SERPIL ERSAN, solicitor
SAVAS YADIRGI-YAZAR
CEMO, artist

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