Police charge Kurdish people in British state crackdown

The Kurdish community is angry at being labelled terrorists, facing violence from the British state on behalf of Erdogan's regime

Kurds demand and end to police repression (Photo: Guy Smallman)

By Paul Burnham
Tuesday 10 December 2024

SOCIALIST WORKER Issue 2935

The police have charged six Kurdish people who were arrested last month. They were accused of being supporters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a proscribed organisation in Britain.

On 27 November, police raided the KCC in north London and arrested seven people across the capital.

Police barricaded the KCC and kept the seven Kurds under arrest.

Following the charges, five have been released but one remains on bail as they are an asylum seeker. Those charged could appear in court as early as 20 December.


Days before the changes Kurds and their supporters rallied against police repression last Sunday in north London’s Wood Green.

The Kurds on the march chanted the Iranian slogan “women, life, freedom”, and ‘Turkish state—terrorist’’. They are incredibly angry at being depicted as terrorists when the Turkish state has a long history of repression, terrorism and torture.

Yet the Turkish government, headed up by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is supported 100 percent by the British state.

The most recent raid and arrests are part of that support. A police leaflet repeated the terrorist slurs and caused great anger. As a result, the Haringey Labour Council leadership got involved and backed the Kurdish protesters.

Members of the community centre recently conducted a hunger strike and 2,000 people marched through central London.

Ibrahim Avcil of the Turkish and Kurdish migrant organisation Gik-Der said, “To my surprise, the local authority has been very good both in terms of criticising the police and the actions they have taken.

“They’ve also stood with those that were protesting in front of the Kurdish Community Centre for over nine days. And they also produced a leaflet for the hunger strikers on how they could look after their health,” he added.

“The whole labour movement needs to take up the Kurds’ slogan, ‘Britain—stop supporting the Turkish state’.”