Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1178032
5 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 20 OCTOBER 2019 NEWS PROJECT PART-FINANCED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION Operational Programme l – European Structural and Investment Funds 2014 – 2020 "Fostering a competitive and sustainable economy to meet our challenges" Project part-financed by the Cohesion Fund Co-financing rate: 85% European Union; 15% National Funds Tablets Capsules Tablets/capsules in packaging Bottled medicines Inhalers Medicinal cream tubes Packaging & information leaflets Empty medicine bottles Caps, cups & spoons Cosmetics Syringes/epipens 8007 2200 DAVID HUDSON A small gathering of Kurds residing in Malta took to the Turkish Embassy in Floriana to show solidarity with war-torn Rojava. Organised by Moviment Graf- fitti yesterday, activists said that following US President Donald Trump's exit from Syria, the Turkish state was carrying out an ethnic cleansing of Kurds in Northern Syria. The vacuum left by the US military allowed Turkish Presi- dent Recep Tayyip Erdogan to oppress the democratic sys- tem in Rojava, a de facto au- tonomous region, and home to Kurdish, Assyrian and Arab communities. "Erdogan Terrorist! Viva Roja- va!" were the cries of the Kurd- ish gathering in Floriana as a spokesperson for the communi- ty said that the Turkish military were killing children along with ISIS terrorists. "We came here to say a few words, to get something done in the hopes that that the war will stop," he said. The invasion of Rojava by Turkish forces has resulted in several high-profile deaths re- ported in the media. Amongst these victims was Hevrin Khalaf, a Kurdish politician and head of the Future Party, as well as a women's rights activist. A Turkish newspaper, Yeni Safak, described Khalaf's killing as a "successful operation." The group that has declared respon- sibility for the murder is Ahrar al-Sharqiya, a Sunni Islamist ex- tremist organisation. "The government in Rojava is built on ideas of feminism, ecological principles and radi- cal democracy. It has managed to fight back but Turkey is using Islamist militants," a Moviment Graffitti activist said yesterday. Only four years ago, the world was celebrating the liberation of Kobane – one of the main cities in Northern Syria – by Kurdish fighters from the hands of ISIS militants. "Now, those Kurdish forces and Rojava communities that had been used to effectively clear ISIS from the region and that were pivotal in the defeat of this terrorist group have been completely and cruelly aban- doned to Erdogan's ambition to destroy the Kurds and other communities in this region," a Graffitti statement read yester- day. According to the Syrian Ob- servatory for Human Rights, 112,850 civilians were killed in the Syrian civil war between March 2011 and March 2019. 'Erdogan terrorist!' Kurds in Malta hold protest outside Turkish embassy "Kurdish forces and Rojava communities who cleared ISIS from the region have been completely and cruelly abandoned to Erdogan's ambition to destroy the Kurds"