Last week, the British state launched an unprecedented attack on the Kurdish community living in London. Here we present a message from one of the victims of this state violence:

Hello heval.

I am fine and feeling stronger. We are no strangers to this barbaric attack on us. Turkey has faced the same attacks thousands of times. This attack or the theatre that was played does not even comply with the law of the jungle. England/Erdoğan Police attacked the houses of 7 of our friends and our association in London at 3:00 am on November 27. During the attacks, the doors of the houses and the association were broken, many items in the houses were damaged, and we still do not know what they did in our association.

They do not give us or the lawyers any information about what they are doing inside, they do not let anyone in. They practically tortured and beat our friends during the raids they carried out on the houses and the association. They detained a total of 7 of our friends on the night of the attack. Later, they attacked the crowd that came to support the association after hearing about this attack. They also beat and detained 6 of our friends during these attacks.

These 6 friends were later released at different times. However, they gave them all punishments while they were released. The punishments they gave were; you cannot come closer than 100 meters to the Kurdish association, you cannot participate in any protests or activities… Another friend of ours who lives outside of London was also imposed absurd punishments such as being banned from entering London, not speaking Kurdish, staying away from places where Kurds are.

Since the first day, 8 of our friends took the initiative of their own free will and went on an unlimited hunger strike. The demand of these friends is to take back the KCC and our friends. Later, we stopped the hunger strike due to serious health problems of some of our friends. However, the hunger strike of two of our friends (Devrim, Beritan) continues today on the 8th day.

The detention period of our 7 friends who are still under arrest has been extended until 09/12/024, we do not have any information about when they will hand over the KCC to us. They handed over the houses of our friends after a few days of delay.

Our society and our friends did not bow down to this oppression of the UK state. We have been resisting since the first day. During this period, we set up a hunger strike tent in front of our association, there are events every day. People constantly visit and show their solidarity. Some of our friends treat us well. We also held 3 big demonstrations. We hold dance and music events every evening between 5–7. We give the courses we hold in the association outside.

Finally, the Kurdish society and the land of Kurdistan are divided into 4 parts in the Middle East and they are subjected to all kinds of oppression, torture and massacre in each of these parts. In contrast, the Kurds have created a tradition of resistance, unyielding, fighting, developing solutions and showing solidarity with other peoples in the world, struggling against all kinds of dictators and tyrants with their women-centred, libertarian, ecological and equal-just paradigms. And this resistance tradition, the democratic modern paradigm, has become the property of all oppressed peoples in the world.

You can sign a petition against the persecution of Kurds in the UK here, and follow our Twitter/X and Instagram accounts to find out about local demonstrations near you.