Press Release

KOBANE. UN PONTE PER: "WE ASK THE EU AND MELONI TO INTERVENE ON ANKARA TO STOP AGGRESSION".

Rome, 20 November 2022 - "We call on the Italian and EU governments to intervene immediately on Turkey, a NATO country, to stop the bombing of the city of Kobane, other cities in north-east Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan. It is unacceptable that a city martyred in the fight against ISIS should be attacked with impunity and in the silence of Western chancelleries, by a country that during the long siege by ISIS, did not move a finger to stop the militiamen of the black caliphate who instead enjoyed complicity and support." This was stated in a statement by the two co-presidents of Un Ponte Per Angelica Romano and Alfio Nicotra.

"The bombardments," Nicotra and Romano continue, "are already producing several victims and many wounded, and we fear that this accounting will have to be dramatically updated in the coming hours. Our fear is that in a humanitarian situation that is already critical due to the harsh winter and the spread of cholera, the Turkish aggression could generate new refugees and new suffering for the population."

"By making instrumental use of the attack in Istanbul," the UPP Presidency note continues, "an aggression is being unleashed that has been planned for some time by the Ankara government and which enjoys the complicity of Russia given that Moscow has allowed the Syrian airspace, banned since 2019, to be opened to the Turkish air force. The war in Ukraine and the failure to act to stop it is having a domino effect in the Middle East and it is again the peoples who are paying the price. Action must be taken to stop this domino effect and for an immediate ceasefire'.

Un Ponte Per is present in North East Syria in cooperation with our partner the Kurdish Red Crescent, and is active in projects to provide health and protection services to the civilian population in the region.