PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
Effect of Turkish military action on the Kurdistan Region in Iraq (13 October 2019)

That this House believes that Turkey's attack on northern Syria is a humanitarian disaster and Turkey should withdraw immediately and negotiate before more innocent people are killed, injured, and displaced; fears that Turkey's actions could effectively Arabise Kurdish lands in Syria forever and represent ethnic cleansing; notes that the attack presents a clear and present danger to the people, security, economy, and even existence of the neighbouring Kurdistan Region in Iraq, which sees itself as a partner of the UK and other Western countries; believes that many thousands of Syrian Kurdish civilians will seek safety in the Kurdistan Region, whose government has already prepared three refugee camps in Duhok where up to 300,000 Syrians have lived since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011; notes the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) commendable generosity towards refugees and about 1.5 million Iraqi citizens who fled to Kurdistan after the capture of Mosul in 2014, and most of whom remain in Kurdistan; further notes that this placed great strains on Kurdistani public services; urges the UK to do more to assist the KRG; believes that chaos and conflict in Syria will help revive Daesh as a danger to the KRG; and that this necessitates concerted assistance from the UK and others who should recognise that the Kurds remain vital allies in resisting Daesh fascism and for common values of democracy, tolerance, and pluralism whose defence in the Kurdistan Region needs to be a major UK priority.

Sponsored by:
Mary Glindon (Labour)