Who am I?

My name is Dirk Campbell. My daughter Anna travelled to Syria to join the Kurdish resistance against Daesh (ISIS).  

Anna's Story

In March 2018, Anna was killed in Afrin, northwestern Syria, by a Turkish air strike. She was fighting with the YPJ, part of the Syrian Defence Force, which has been supported in its fight against Daesh by the UK. However, more concerned about the supposed terrorist threat from the Kurds at its borders than the actual terrorist threat to the region from Daesh, Turkey invaded the Kurdish canton of Afrin with tanks, planes, drones and precision missiles, one of which killed Anna.

The Turks are at this very moment invading the rest of the Kurdish territory in northern Syria. Thousands of deaths are inevitable, homelessness, starvation and mass migration — a repeat on ten times the scale of what happened to Afrin.

Anna’s remains still lie in Afrin where she was killed and which is now Turkish controlled territory.  We know the exact location. I have the right to reclaim my daughter’s body.  Yet the British government refuses to take any action and my requests to the Turkish government have been ignored.

I have not even been accorded the courtesy of a reply to my repeated request to the Turkish embassy in London. My meetings with the Foreign Office have proved fruitless despite promises to ‘do our best’. My MP has done nothing to help. 

I have been left with no option but to seek legal action.

Our Legal Case

I have instructed leading human rights lawyers, McCue & Partners.  The actions that need to be taken are:

• To establish what legal options are available to me. Initial advice is that Turkey is likely to be in violation of international law.

• Make a freedom of information act request for all materials held by the UK government relating to the death of my daughter and Turkey’s failure to repatriate her body.

• Make further and formal representations to the Turkish government.

• Enter into mediation with the Turkish government to negotiate the return of Anna’s body.

• Should Turkey refuse to return Anna’s body, to take any necessary and appropriate legal action.

Why am I raising funds?

The initial £10,000 target was reached in 10 hours on October 24. The final target for this campaign is £25,000. This money is to gather evidence, interview witnesses, make formal representations to the Turkish government and establish what next steps can and should be taken. If I am successful in raising the money there may be further costs (unknown at this point) to continue scoping the case, brief a barrister, bring the case to court, and fund the proceedings. 

Anna gave her life fighting for freedom and the rights and lives of others.  It is an embarrassment to the UK and a disgrace and shame on Turkey that her body has been left to rot in the rubble of a ruined city. Please help me bring my daughter home.

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