ISTANBUL
A group of around 100 people gathered in the Kadikoy district of Istanbul on Wednesday to see off 50 people taking a 12-hour coach journey to the Turkish town of Suruc – now home to the thousands of Kurdish refugees fleeing ISIL advances in Syria.
Many Kurds from Syria's northern town of Kobani have been fleeing across the nearby border to Suruc in south-eastern Turkey since Friday.
On Thursday, the refugees will meet supporters from the leftist Peoples' Democratic Party who are now making their way to Suruc.
"The journey from Istanbul to Kobani is significant for us," Tamer Dogan, one of the travellers told the Anadolu Agency. "What happens in Kobani is a life-or-death issue."
“We will be human shields there," he said.
He said some of travellers will turn back to Istanbul on Saturday while others will stay in Suruc and Kobani for a month to show full support for their fellow Kurds.
"There is a heart-wrenching human tragedy in Kobani and we cannot do anything here," 24-year-old Mazhar Suyuk told AA, adding they were going to Suruc to do their best to help Kurdish refugees.
Figen Yuksekdag, co-leader of HDP, said there were 35 coaches leaving from Istanbul on Wednesday in addition to other buses leaving from various cities across Turkey. These are expected to arrive in Suruc on Thursday.
"This will be a journey for humanity, and a journey of solidarity," Yuksekdag said, calling on the international community to "embrace the resistance" in Kobani.
She called ISIL "the gang of homicide" and stressed the fighting of Kurdish people in the region against the extremist organization.
International powers are trying to design the Middle East with their “wicked games”, she claimed and suggested that U.S.-led air strikes against ISIL were not enough.
"But there are people who insist upon the equality and freedom of all the Middle Eastern countries. We are of the same opinion with them… We are setting out on this journey to say that those in Kobani are not alone."
www.aa.com.tr/en
