Thousands protest in Zurich for Kurds in Syria

Thousands protest in Zurich for Kurds in Syria Keystone-SDA

Several thousand people took to the streets in Zurich on Saturday to oppose the advance of Syrian government forces into Kurdish regions. They called for an end to attacks on the autonomous administration of north and east Syria known as Rojava in Kurdish.

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On site on Helvetiaplatz, the Zurich City Police issued a spontaneous permit to move on a specified route from District 4 to District 1 and back to District 4, as they announced in the evening.

According to police, shortly after 2:30pm, the participants of the rally set off from Helvetiaplatz via Stauffacherstrasse along the agreed route via Sihlporte to Bahnhofstrasse and Bärengasse and then back to Helvetiaplatz via Talacker and Sihlporte. The demonstration broke up around 6pm.

Firecrackers and property damage

Firecrackers and fireworks were set off repeatedly and speeches were made along the way. There was also damage to property due to graffiti sprayers.

The organisers of what they called a national solidarity demonstration in Zurich said in a statement on Saturday evening that “around 25,000 people” had taken part. The Zurich city police cautiously estimate a maximum of 4,000 to 5,000.

After the actual demonstration, the Zurich city police received a report that a man had threatened another man with a handgun on Molkenstrasse and then fled into a building, according to a statement. The emergency services were able to locate and apprehend the alleged perpetrator.

The organisers of the rally describe the incident as follows: Towards the end of the demonstration, a man was spotted aiming a weapon at the crowd. Before he could fire a shot, the attacker was overpowered by the demonstration’s security guards and handed over to the police. The police took the attacker into custody.

Request to the Swiss government

According to the organiser’s statements, the demonstration was called by an alliance of Kurdish organisations, left-wing groups, and civil society actors, including the Council of the Kurdish Community in Switzerland (CDK-S). The demonstrators demanded that the Swiss government take a clear stance against the war and call for the protection and political recognition of the Kurdish population.

The background to this week’s demonstrations in various Swiss cities is an offensive by the Syrian transitional government against the areas in the north and northeast of the country that have been controlled by the Kurds until now – known as Rojava by the Kurds.

A ceasefire is currently in place. However, both sides continue to accuse each other of violations. The government under interim president Ahmed al-Scharaa, himself a militant Islamist for many years, wants to place all areas of Syria under a central government.

30 million without their own land

The Kurdish people, with over 30 million people, do not have their own territory, but live spread across the countries of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. They speak an Iranian language and are mostly Sunni Muslims.

When the Kurds were still fighting against the terrorist organisation Islamic State, they were courted and supported by the US. But US President Donald Trump abandoned them once their work was done. Now they have their backs to the wall, harassed for years by the Turkish army and vilified by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Translated from German by AI/jdp

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