THIS THURSDAY! WHY HAS TURKEY INVADED AFRIN?

Place: Marx Memorial Library, 37A Clerkenwell Green, London, EC1R 0DU
Date: THURSDAY 22 February 2018
Time: 19.00 – 21.00

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/344325589402024/ 

Since the 20th of January 2018, the Kurdish region of Afrin in Rojava, has been invaded by the Turkish State and affiliated jihadists groups, trained and equipped by the Turkish army. Towns and villages, refugee camps, historic and sacred sites are being bombed by Turkish fighter-jets and artillery along with a ground invasion with tanks and mortars. The military attacks are enabled by U.K., U.S. and E.U. military technologies and equipment, through international arms-trades and deals, which are being used against civilians. More than 150 civilians have been reported killed and more than 350 injured in the attack, a lot of the civilians affected are refugees and IDP’s who have fled other parts of Syria for the relative security and stability of Afrin. Every day, civilians are being subjected to new war crimes; women are being raped, sexually assaulted, and their bodies mutilated.

Our distinguished panel will discuss the multi-dimensional dynamics of the Afrin situation and the wider region. Please join us for a much-needed discussion.

Speakers:

Professor David Graeber, is professor of anthropology at the LSE and author of Debt: The First 5000 years; he was involved in the Global Justice Movement and Occupy Wall Street. He visited Rojava, Northern Syria in 2014 on a two-week delegation.

Dr. Kamran Matin, is a senior lecturer in International Relations at the University of Sussex, UK. His research investigates the international dimension of social change with a focus on the Middle East. He has published widely on international relations of the Middle East, Iranian history and Kurdish politics.

Mohammed Elnaiem, is an editor at The Region, a news agency which covers developments unfolding in the wider area of West Asia (Middle East). Prior to joining the team at The Region, he conducted an Mphil in the University of Cambridge which was an ethnographic look at the Kurdish Youth Movement in Europe in an effort to find any potential connections between the Kurdish and Black liberation movements.

Elif Sarican, is a MSc Social Anthropology student at the London School of Economics. She is one of the coordiantors of the Kurdistan Students Union in the UK.

Chaired by, Ayca Cubukcu, is Assistant Professor of Human Rights and Director of the Human Rights Programme at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is the author of the forthcoming book, For the Love of Humanity: the World Tribunal on Iraq, which will be published by the University of Pennsylvania Press this year.

The event is free of charge. Admission is on a first come basis.

For those who cannot attend, the event will be livestreamed on our Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/344325589402024/

Place: Marx Memorial Library, 37A Clerkenwell Green, London, EC1R 0DU
Date: THURSDAY 22 February 2018
Time: 19.00 – 21.00

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/344325589402024/