00:00 Sarah Parker: If I can do them in order or what – I'll just do my best to pick up various points. So, this question of "we're not sure what the Americans and Brussels are doing". Well, we're not. I mean, I do my best to follow it, but we're not flies on the wall, and, you know, a lot of stuff is done behind closed doors. We can't expect to know immediately. Obviously there's been the commentary that Mustafa has talked about.
00:25 I mentioned the fact that Turkey is a close ally of the British state at the beginning, and that I haven't seen much comment from the British state. My feeling is they will probably be– the British will probably be the, if you like, least perturbed and least sympathetic to any form of opposition to Erdoğan. They have for many years run close relations between the British police and the Turkish police. I mean, I've gone on about it at length. You know, we have a mountain to climb in terms of putting pressure on the government here. It's going to be very difficult; they're pretty well insulated by the political situation.
01:10 The Labour MPs, even the ones that are supportive of the Kurdish movement and working-class rights, are busy with what we know they're busy with. They're not paying any attention to speak of to what's going on in Turkey, as far as I know. There's a bit more attention, I think, being paid in Scotland, but, you know. So that is going to be an ongoing problem. And I think – I've been saying for a long time – one of the things we should be trying to expose is precisely what we can about the relations, in our case particularly, between the British state and the Turkish state.
01:50 What you said about Boris Johnson – yes, I think actually maybe his grandfather was quite liberal. I mean, he was eventually done in by, I think, [inaudible] – executed, yeah, lynched, something – hang on, [inaudible] yeah. But the relations between the British state and the Turkish state are quite deep. So yeah, I'm sure Boris is moderately interested in the question, but the relations are quite deep and complex and sinister, and they extend to close relations with the Barzani gang in South Kurdistan, and that is all to do with oil extraction. So there's not an overnight solution, but we do have to try and keep exposing what's going on.
02:40 Yeah, support for Academics for Peace is going to be very important. I mean, I think one of the things we should be doing probably is encouraging people to get on to Amnesty – I'm sure they're overwhelmed with work, they'll need some new workers – but, you know, them and other similar organisations, they're in a kind of position to make fusses, get in the news, make representations at a national level, to try [and] rescue some of the people who are, you know, presently going into prison and may suffer worse fates.
03:10 Again, you know, there are links from the NUT; I'm sure many trade unions will do what they can. I mean, on this campaign, Solidarity with the People of Turkey – it's not a new campaign. I mean, they know– I've said they're going to relaunch it, but it's been around for a while. The trouble is it doesn't have a very big purchase, and this is one of the problems we have in solidarity. You know, it's a large task and it's not very easy. Yes, we should certainly do what we can with them, and with Peace in Kurdistan.
03:45 I mean, doubtless there will be giant mobilisations outside the Turkish Embassy and elsewhere. Perhaps there will be delegations at some point, when that's possible. I think there are still delegations going to Rojava, although that is quite difficult. Delegations to Turkey – I don't know; I'm sure people will be trying at a certain point.
04:15 And Syrian refugees – yeah, they're going to be getting it in all sorts of ways in this wave of chauvinism. It is also the case that Erdoğan will be using the people who have so far been grateful to him, as far as he can, against the Kurds. So, you know, he's got many irons in the fire.
04:40 On what Terry was saying about not being convinced by confederalism: I mean, I know there are people like Joseph Daher who make dire [?] predictions about how PKK-related organisations are, you know, going to become worse and are repressing the opposition. I mean, every single case that I've looked at where this has been alleged, you always end up back at disputes with Barzani supporters. Now of course this is endlessly recycled, and, you know, that's not always obvious from whatever article you happen to see it in.
05:30 But I think it would be wrong to dismiss the efforts of the Kurdish movement to organise – well, to encourage organisation from the base. You know, I don't doubt that the political parties do make decisions and ask other people to do them, but they do also try to encourage, and they have done that, I think, to some degree – I'm not saying perfectly always – from the beginning, because they know they've got a society that has had hundreds if not thousands of years of repression, and they want people to be motivated to do stuff themselves.
06:20 And if you look at the achievements in Rojava, I think it is, you know, making a very one-dimensional picture if you don't see that there is genuine enthusiasm, for example, for women to come out of the home, be organised in councils where there is – I don't know how much, but clearly – a certain amount of election and delegation upwards. I mean, I don't know if you've seen the report by Zaher Baher, the Haringey anarchist. I mean, that was quite interesting in terms of the tensions around the subject.
07:05 Yes, I've nearly finished. You know, what would be the alternatives? I mean, I can't– I think one has to, you know, recognise what they're doing, and, you know, it's possible to have discussions with people in the movement about what's going on and how things are being done.
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