- Title: Kurds march in Athens to protest Turkish incursion into Syria
- Date: 12th October 2019
- Summary: PROTESTERS HOLDING BANNER DEPICTING JAILED KURDISH LEADER ABDULLAH OCALAN PROTESTER MERVIN MHAMAD, HOLDING UP POSTER DEPICTING KURDISH FEMALE FIGHTER AND WITH HASHTAG READING: (English) "#RISEUP4ROJAVA" ('ROJAVA' REFERS TO AUTONOMOUS ADMINISTRATION OF NORTH AND EAST SYRIA)
- 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: LVA002B0SKTVR
- 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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