A protest outside Sydney Town Hall on September 23 called on the Australian government to break its silence about Turkey's ongoing war on the Kurds and its recent deadly attacks in the south Kurdistan region of Iraq.
On September 18, three peshmerga (Kurdish freedom fighters) affiliated with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) were killed and three others wounded in a drone strike on an airport in Sulaymaniyah/ Silêmanî.
At around the same time, Deniz Cevdet Bülbün, the representative the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) — Kurdish umbrella organisation — was killed in an armed attack on the KNK's Erbil (Hewlêr) office.
"This was an attack on the unity of the Kurdish people," Kurdish community representative Brusk Aeiveri told the rally.
He accused the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) authorities of collaborating with the Turkish state to facilitate attacks like these.
The KNK office was monitored 24-hours a day by the KRG security and intelligence forces and is surrounded with cameras. If the attacked weren't protected how could they have broken into the KNK office and carried out a massacre, he asked.
"We also send our deepest condolences to the KNK, PUK and the people of Kurdistan and the families of the martyrs. We also urge the Australian government, as a party to the seven core international human rights treaties to raise its voice and concern about this terrorist attack on civilians, activists and the Kurdish people's representatives."
Peter Boyle from Rojava Solidarity Sydney condemned the government's silence as "shameful" and said that "international silence on acts like these allowed the Turkish state to act with impunity in its ongoing war against Kurds".