The Kurdish community and supporters gathered at New South Wales Parliament on August 23 to mark 100 years since the Treaty of Lausanne divided the Ottoman Empire and split Kurdish land between Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.
The seminar, hosted by NSW Greens MLC Abigail Boyd, heard from UNSW Law Professor Dr Vicki Sentas, Peter Boyle from Rojava Solidarity Sydney and Baran Sogut and Zanin Aeivieri from the Sydney Kurdish Youth Association.
Speakers addressed the impact of the Treaty on the Kurdish people, the ongoing dispossession and oppression committed against Kurdish people and how the Treaty was established by competing imperialist powers in the early 20th Century.