THE GERMAN KURDISH CHAPTER MESOP NEWS : German Protestant Church: Only way is to arm Kurds

23 March 2015 – Berlin – The Evangelical Church in Germany, one of the largest Protestant churches in the world, has called for more arms to be provided to South Kurdistan to combat ISIS.. The Chairman of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, has said it is necessary to provide weapons to South Kurdistan to combat ISIS barbarism. Bedford-Strohm told Spiegel Online that there was no other option in order to prevent massacres.

He added that the peshmerga were the ‘only defence force’ countering attacks on Christians in South Kurdistan and Iraq and called for more armed support to be provided. Bedford-Strohm said the United Nations should also play a role in defending minorities, and that failing this the only alternaative was to send weaponry to the peshmerga..The EKD Council Chairman also called on Moslems to: “Take a critical approach to their traditions and to the question of violence.” Bedford-Strohm called for action to be taken to identify radical youth and those with Salafi tendencies and for efforts to be made to win them over.After the massacres perpetrated by ISIS in Sinjar in August, the German Government provided 70 million Euros worth of arms to the peshmerga in South Kurdistan. However, only a small proportion of this aid consisted of heavy weaponry.