Canada Plans To Sell CF-5 Warplanes

[root at newsdesk.aps.nl]

From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam)
Subject: Canada Plans To Sell CF-5 Warplanes To Turkey
Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl

---- Forwarded from : kcc at infoweb.magi.com (Kurdistan Committee of Canada) -----

Kurdistan Committee of Canada
2487 Kaladar Ave. Suite 203
Ottawa, Ontario, K1V 8B9

Tel: (613) 733-9634
Fax: (613) 733-0090



Press Release
March 22, 1995

Canada Plans To Sell CF-5 Warplanes To Turkey

Late last week, a CTV News report confirmed that the Canadian government 
is negotiating the sale of 39 refitted CF-5 warplanes to Turkey. The 
Canadian government seems to have a short memory. Just last year, the 
Foreign Affairs Ministry condemned Turkey's air attacks on Kurdish 
civilians. These attacks on civilians are still going on today, so why 
does the Canadian government want to aid in these murders?

On Monday, Turkey launched the biggest military operation in its history 
when, according to the KURD-A News Agency, as many as 100,000 Turkish 
troops invaded South Kurdistan (northern Iraq). Now, refugees camps are 
being bombarded and hundreds of Kurdish civilians have been rounded up. 
And yet this region is supposed to be a UN protected "safe haven". It 
seems there is no safe place in the world for the Kurdish people.

The world's 40 million Kurds are the largest people without their own 
country. The Kurdish people have been subjected to oppression and foreign 
domination for centuries. Over the last 10 years, however, the Kurdish 
national liberation struggle has given the Kurdish people a sense of 
pride and feelings of hope. In response to this, countries like Turkey 
have reacted with brutal force, and it is almost always the civilians who 
suffer. According to figures released by the National Liberation Front of 
Kurdistan (ERNK) in 1994, during the last 10 years of civil war, more 
than 5,000 Kurdish civilians have been killed, 2,000 Kurdish villages 
burned and destroyed by the Turkish army, and more than 3 million Kurds 
have been forced to become refugees.

This killing is carried out with weapons supplied by Western countries, 
since Turkey is a member of NATO. Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Andri 
Ouellet has stated that the planes will only be sold if Turkey promises 
not to use them against civilians - but such promises from Turkey cannot 
be believed. When the Federal Republic of Germany sold 300 BTR-60 battle 
tanks and other weapons to Turkey after the Gulf War, they were given 
assurances that the arms would not be used against civilians. But a 
series of parliamentary and human rights delegations brought back 
documented evidence which proved that the arms had been used to destroy 
several hundred Kurdish settlements.

The Kurdish people are being faced with genocide. If Canada goes through 
with its decision to sell CF-5 warplanes to Turkey then they will be 
jointly responsible for the continued persecution of the Kurdish people.

The Kurdish people want peace, not war. And the Kurdish people want to be 
free. We call on the Canadian people to support the struggle of the 
Kurdish people for a peaceful and democratic solution to the Kurdish 
question. And we call on the Canadian government: Do not sell CF-5 
warplanes to Turkey!

Send letters of protest to:

Prime Minister Jean Chretien
Room 309-S, House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6
Phone: (613) 992-4211
Fax: (613) 941-6900

Foreign Affairs Minister Andri Ouellet
Room 314 WB, House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6
Phone: (613) 995-8872
Fax: (613) 995-9926

Defence Minister David Collenette
121 EB, House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6
Phone: (613) 995-4988
Fax: (613) 995-1686


Stop all arms sales to Turkey!
Freedom for Kurdistan!

The Kurdistan Committee of Canada



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