- Title: Kurds march in Athens to protest Turkish incursion into Syria
- Date: 12th October 2019
- Summary: ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROTESTER MERVIN MHAMAD, AGED 26, WHOSE FAMILY IS LIVING IN SYRIA'S TEL ABYAD BORDER AREA, SAYING: "Why you are like, watching, what you waiting for? To kill the kids and all the people? I don't know. Maybe they are very enjoy - this is not a movie, this is real life. We want everybody in the world to stand up and stop this and rise (up) for Rojava." (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROTESTER BAWAN, 28, SAYING: "This is a genocide. Please help us, please help us. It's enough!" VARIOUS OF CHILDREN AT PROTEST, ONE HOLDING POSTER READING: "DICTATOR ERDOGAN, GET OUT OF ROJAVA" HUNDREDS OF PROTESTERS MARCHING AND WAVING KURDISH FLAGS LITTLE BOY ON MAN'S SHOULDERS WAVING FLAG VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS MARCHING AND WAVING FLAGS VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS WAVING HUGE KURDISH FLAG PROTESTERS MARCHING WITH LARGE RED FLAG VARIOUS OF ELDERLY WOMAN WITH TRADITIONAL FACE TATTOO MARCHING POLICE VAN BLOCKING STREET LEADING TO TURKISH EMBASSY GREEK RIOT POLICE NEXT TO VAN VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS WAVING FLAGS AND CHANTING "TERRORIST TURKEY" VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS CHEERING AS ONE PROTESTER BURNS A POSTER DEPICTING ERDOGAN PROTESTERS WAVING KURDISH FLAG AND CHANTING
- Embargoed: 26th October 2019 19:16
- Keywords: Turkish military operation in Syria Tel Abyad Kurds living in Greece protest
- Location: ATHENS, GREECE
- City: ATHENS, GREECE
- Country: Greece
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Military Conflicts
- Reuters ID: LVA003B0SKTVR
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Hundreds of Kurds living in Greece rallied in Athens on Saturday (October 12) to demand international action over Turkey's military action in northeast Syria.
About 2,000 Kurds and Greeks marched to the Turkish embassy in central Athens waving Kurdish flags and banners reading "Stop the invasion now".
"This is a genocide. Please help us, please help us, it's enough," Bawan, one of the Kurdish protesters, told Reuters. Another, 26-year-old Mervin Mhamad, whose family lives the Syrian border town of Tel Abyad said her message to the world was "What are you waiting for?"
A group burned a poster of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
The Turkish incursion in northeast Syria has raised international alarm over a mass displacement of civilians and fears that it could trigger a revival of the Islamic State insurgency in Syria.
Despite their status as NATO allies, relations between Turkey and Greece have historically been tense.
Greece, the route into Europe for nearly a million refugees and migrants in 2015, is dealing with a steep rise in migrants crossing the Aegean to its islands from neighbouring Turkey after a relative three-year lull.
(Production: Vassilis Triandafyllou, Phoebe Fronista) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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