I joined the Kurdish administration’s Representative Haval Syan and activist Tavga Zandy to honour peshmerga veterans of Kurdistan’s fight for an independent homeland.

Attendees remembered both Kurds and others murdered by ISIL and the victims in Paris of similar religious fascists.

Kurds have long struggled for the right to their identity, language and culture. In Iraq it involved betrayal by the Great Powers at the Treaty of Lausanne after World War I, the gassing by Saddam Hussein and dependence upon the real politik, self interest of USA. Throughout these years Kurds continued to fight and dream of a homeland.

The community has a significant presence in the Liverpool region.