JINHA

HEWLER - Kurdish women's organizations gathered outside the UN office in Hewler, in the Federal Kurdistan Region of Iraq, to call for UN action on the Turkish bombing of a civilian Kurdish village.

On August 1, Turkish jets bombed the Kurdish village of Zergelê in the Qandil region of Iraq, in Southern Kurdistan. Nine civilians were killed in the bombing. Yesterday, Kurdish women's groups led by the Kurdish Women's Relations Center (REPAK) gathered outside the UN office to call for action on the massacre.ParezOmar read a statement in Sorani Kurdish, while REPAK chair MeralÇiçek read it in English.

The women noted that the Iraqi central government had called the attacks "an assault on Iraqi sovereignty," but that the Turkish army has only expanded the scope of its airstrikes since then.

"With these attacks that are continuing since 10 days in an illegal way, not only international law is being injured," said the women. "At the same time the massacre on civilians… constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity."

The women called for a UN delegation to immediately travel to the village of Zergelê. They also called for the necessary legal and diplomatic measures to be taken in the case of crimes against humanity and for the UN to intervene to help find a peaceful solution to the Turkish state's Kurdish problem.

(nd/fk/cm)