Not for the first time, a north London Kurdish Community Centre has been targeted by police. What lies behind the latest arrests?

In the early hours of 27th November, Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism officers raided the homes of six Kurdish activists, reportedly inflicting emotional and physical violence on their families, including children. They have now been expelled from their homes, and will not be allowed to return for 14 days.

At the same time, units invaded the Kurdish Community Centre (KCC) on Green Lanes in Haringey in northeast London, reportedly inflicting the same violence on those staying there and barricading the property. Hundreds of riot police in armoured vans, accompanied by police dogs and helicopters, imposed a military-like occupation of  the surrounding area, harassing residents who gathered to oppose the attack on the centre of their community life. Airspace over Haringey was closed, and police units stayed long into the night. Reports of police brutality are shocking, including allegedly striking a child and beating elderly community members. People in the Community Centre were reportedly handcuffed and made to stand outside in the rain while the police undertook their search.

A member of one of the targeted households said: “I awoke suddenly at 2am and thought an earthquake had hit. The door of my house was smashed in and fifteen balaclava-clad police officers appeared at the top of the stairs and jumped on my husband, brutally beating and then arresting him. Soon after my 15-year old son appeared, and police jumped on him and started beating him also. He and I screamed, telling them that he is a child and then they stopped.

“In my more than 23 years living in Britain I have never experienced anything like this. My entire family is shaken to the core, and my son is suffering terribly from the traumatic experience. The police won’t even allow us to go home to retrieve his school uniform.”

The UK Kurdish community comprises many refugees who fled cultural and political persecution in Turkey. Yet Kurds with Turkish citizenship and family connections to regions ruled by Turkey are regularly harassed at the UK border, and their community organizations are routinely criminalised and targeted by British state institutions.

This longstanding state harassment of this community saw an unprecedented escalation this week, say campaigners. It is a telling ‘coincidence’, they say,  that a UK minister has been visiting Turkey and the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, so that this attack prefaces their talks on trade and arms deals.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg reminded us of the plight of Kurds, tweeting this week: “Recently I have been travelling through northern Kurdistan, and have met with Kurdish people from all different kinds of backgrounds. They told countless stories of the current systematic oppression and repression they face – especially from the Turkish state –, as well as a history full of massacres.”

She added that the Turkish government “continues to use ‘terrorism’ as a pretext to silence its political opponents. Tens of thousands of politically active individuals remain imprisoned without fair trials. International organizations such as the ECHR, UN, and Amnesty have condemned this and call for their release.”

Haringey’s Kurdish Community Centre, argue its supporters, is a crucial space where community members, neighbours, and all those interested, can engage with the ideas of a movement advocating for a democratic solution for Kurdistan, the wider region and across the world, based on the principles of women’s liberation, ecology and participatory democracy. Green Lanes has long provided a home for the Kurdish community in London, a refuge where they contribute to the area’s rich diversity, and London’s celebrated multiculturalism. The KCC on Green Lanes is the hub of this vibrant community, providing music and language classes, supplementary schools, cultural celebrations, concerts, shared meals, and many other activities.

The KCC and Kurdish community have done all this in the face of constant surveillance and suspicion. Now, with this unprecedented attack, their contribution to London and the UK’s cultural life is under severe threat, say campaigners, bringing to the streets of Britain scenes identical  to those found in repressive, autocratic states like Turkey.

One community member said: “As a community we are in shock at the violent attack against us. Despite decades of mistreatment by the British state, in our time living here in Britain, we have never witnessed such violent attacks and invasion of our community space. What has taken place, the premeditated violence and the lies about our community have shattered all trust with local authorities. It will also have dire implications for the democratic rights and freedoms of everybody in Britain.”

The Metropolitan Police have claimed that their attack is part of a longstanding, serious investigation into the arrested activists, claimed to be connected to terrorist activity. However, apparently no charges have been brought against any of those arrested.

Aso Kamali, co-chair of the Kurdish People’s Assembly Britain, told Novara Media that the actions of the police showed that Kurds in the UK were a “community being discriminated against for the nature of their ethnicity.” Kamali said she was left bleeding following the raid and may need to go to hospital.

Attempts to criminalise the Kurdish community rest on the listing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as a proscribed terrorist organisation. In 2020, however, the Belgian courts ruled after a ten-year long legal case that the PKK is not a terrorist organisation, but is a party to an internal armed conflict as defined in international law. The PKK’s proscription in the UK appears to be being used more broadly against Turkish and Kurdish democrats and progressives.

Novara Media also reported that the KCC’s anniversary celebration on 27th November last year was also raided by the police, though that time they were pushed back by Kurds at the Community Centre and forced to leave. They also pointed out that supporting the release from prison of PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan, who has been in prison in Turkey since 1999, does not constitute overt support for the PKK, and the Freedom for Ocalan campaign is supported by many trade unions. Foreign Secretary David Lammy, whose Tottenham constituency contains the biggest proportion of diaspora Kurds in the UK, has previously voiced support for the campaign to release Ocalan. In 2016, David Lammy was photographed at a protest where Kurdish groups displayed flags including the proscribed PKK flag.

Jeremy Corbyn MP reacted with concern to the police operation, tweeting: “I am deeply alarmed by the raid on the Kurdish Community Centre by large numbers of riot police. The Centre is an important cultural space for the diverse and inclusive communities of North London. It provides support for refugees who have fled war and persecution, and a space for the Kurdish community to come together. Its services and classes are a lifeline for many. Attacks on one community’s institutions or its democratic freedoms is an attack on us all.”

Campaigners are demanding:  

• The immediate release of community members, and a full explanation for their arrest.
• An end to the occupation of the KCC, so that it can immediately resume essential community services.
• An end to the criminalisation of the Kurdish community, including the harassment of activists.
• The delisting of the PKK as a proscribed terrorist organisation, and a meaningful UK contribution t o a democratic peace process in Turkey. 
• A public apology from the Metropolitan Police and the Mayor of London, in his capacity as Police and Crime Commissioner for London, and a public affirmation of the inviolability of essential community spaces and services, as well as a commitment to their maintenance and protection.

Image: Metropolitan police counter-terrorism officers. https://the-siu.org.uk/uk-and-us-cooperate-to-arrest-man-for-funding-terrorism/ Creator: rawpixel.com / Sergeant Matt Hecht | Credit: rawpixel.com / Sergeant Matt Hecht. Licence: CC0 1.0 Universal CC0 1.0 Deed.