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TRADE unionists, MPs and academics have thrown their weight behind a petition demanding the government suspend military and economic co-operation with Turkey ahead of a major national demonstration.
The petition was launched by the Peace in Kurdistan campaign at the weekend and will be delivered to Prime Minister Theresa May next week.
Since the failed coup of July 15, more than 100,000 public-sector workers, including 11,000 Kurdish and pro-Kurdish teachers, have been sacked. Opposition media outlets have also been closed down, along with 370 NGOs.
Last month saw the jailing of Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag.
Campaigners are pressing the government to make clear that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s “suspension of democracy and repression of democratic political opposition must cease immediately.”
Peace in Kurdistan’s Melanie Gingell said: “Turkey’s slide into autocracy continues, with elected MPs now in prison, thousands of public-sector workers sacked and sweeping closures of media outlets which are not totally sycophantic to the regime.”
She said the HDP was “calling on the EU and Britain to suspend all military and economic co-operation with Turkey, for the release of political prisoners, for the withdrawal of embassy staff and for statements to be made which make it totally clear that fascist policies will not be tolerated in Europe.”
Thousands of people are expected at a “Defend Democracy in Turkey” demonstration in London on Sunday that will march from the Turkish embassy to Parliament.
