Defend the Kurds and stop the Turkish military invasion of northern Syria!

 

This  week  there has been shock and anger as Donald Trump withdrew US troops from northern Syria and the support it was providing to the Kurds in northern Syria, who have been instrumental over the past four years in defeat of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or Daesh), but which are viewed with deep hostility by the government in Ankara. This has given the oppressive Tayip Erdogan  regime the green light to unleash a wave of barbaric bombings leaving innocent civilians dead.
Between 25 and 35 million Kurds inhabit a mountainous region straddling the borders of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Armenia. They make up the fourth-largest ethnic group in the Middle East, but they have never obtained a permanent nation state. Today, they form a distinctive community, united through race, culture and  language, even though they have no standard dialect. They also adhere to a number of different religions and creeds, although the majority are Sunni Muslims.
In the early 20th Century, many Kurds began to consider the creation of a homeland - generally referred to as "Kurdistan". After World War One and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the victorious Western allies made provision for a Kurdish state in the 1920 Treaty of Sevres.
They lost out on their dreams of independent statehood in the remaking of the Middle East that followed the end of the first World War, when the Treaty of Lausanne, which set the boundaries of modern Turkey, made no provision for a Kurdish state and left Kurds with minority status in their respective countries. Over the next 80 years, any move by Kurds to set up an independent state was brutally quashed. The kurds one of the indigenous peoples of the Mesopotamian plains and the highlands were partitioned  between Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. These four states
were founded on the oppression of the kurds.
Decades later, having joined an uprising against the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, with the overt encouragement of the US, they saw their aspirations for freedom crushed as Saddam used helicopter gunships, with the tacit approval of US forces, to put down the rebellion. Thus Trump’s betrayal of his Kurdish allies follows a long and dishonourable pattern of western duplicity in the region.  Betrayal leaves a bitter taste as the Kurds are abandoned by western allies yet again. An old kurdish proverb reflects a history of dissapointments  ' we have no friends but the mountains' now is the time to show them this is not the case.

The key Kurdish actors in Syria are the People’s Protection Units or YPG, the dominant element in an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and the military wing of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).

Over the course of eight years of civil war in Syria, Kurdish forces have captured tens of thousands of square miles of territory in the northeast of the country, close to the Turkish border.In so doing, they have established a de facto autonomous region, sometimes referred to as  'Rojava',  meaning “the land where the sun sets.” which is home to significant Kurdish, Arab and Assyrian populations. that has captured the imagination of people across the world, inspired by the achievements. of the  kurdish led movement in particular, the gains in womens liberation, LGBTQ liberation struggles, experiments in direct democracy  and campaigns for ecological justice.
The YPG has borne the brunt of the campaign against Islamic State in Syria. It played a major role in the August 2014 evacuation to safety of 50,000 Yezidis threatened by an Islamic State campaign regarded as genocidal by the United Nations, and in the recapture of Raqqa, the one-time capital of the Islamic State caliphate, in October 2017..In all, the YPG suffered losses of up to 11,000 fighters in the conflict. However, regardless of its role in the fight against Islamic State, for Turkey, the YPG is no more than an extension of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), which has fought a fierce campaign for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey since 1984.. Not for the first time, the  mad impetuous nature of US president Donald Trump’s foreign policy making has taken the world by surprise.

The ideological inspiration for the Rojava project is Abdullah Öcalan, the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). For Öcalan, capitalism was an “inherent component” of the nation-state. What was needed, he argued, was “democracy without the state.”

Many Kurds in Rojava consider Abdullah Öcalan a national hero.Today, it is nearly impossible to drive down a street in the Kurdish parts of Syria without seeing Öcalan’s face smiling through a bushy mustache. He is stenciled on walls, plastered on billboards, and stuck on cellphone cases.
In 1980, Öcalan fled his home in Turkey for Syria. The Assad regime was repressing the rights of its Kurdish population, but it allowed Öcalan to form training camps on Syrian soil. From there, his guerrillas directed attacks against Syria’s enemy Turkey in pursuit of establishing an independent Kurdish t state. In 1997, the United States labeled the PKK  a terrorist organization, and the following year Hafez al-Assad kicked out Öcalan. With help from the CIA, Turkish intelligence captured him in Kenya in 1999.
 The Kurds are so serious about devolving power to the local level that Rojava’s charter requires each of its three regions to have its own flag. And within each region, local elected councils are in charge. They organize garbage collection, adjudicate disputes and manage public health and safety.
Confederalism sets the Kurds apart from almost every other government in the Middle East.
Across the region, power is concentrated at the top. Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, is an authoritarian leader who has ruthlessly crushed his opponents in the country’s eight year civil war, Egypt has a  military government. Saudi Arabia has a king. But Rojava would be an exceptional society almost anywhere.
Rojava’s charter guarantees freedom of expression and assembly and equality of all religious communities and languages. It mandates direct democracy, term limits and gender equality. Men and women share every position in government. Kurdish women have fought the Islamic State in Syria as soldiers in an all-female militia.
In a region where religion and politics are often intertwined, the Kurdish state is secular. Religious leaders cannot serve in politics. Rojava’s charter even affirms the right of all citizens to a healthy environment.
Surrounding countries,including Syria , also have constitutions with eloquent endorsements of political and human rights. In Rojava, however, the constitution is actually in effect. Syrian Kurds have realized the dream of the 2010-2011 pro-democracy uprisings across the Arab world,
Many internationalists  came to join the YPJ from around the world, and many were martyred. These include  comrades Heval Avsin ,Jac Holmes, Eric Scurfield, Heval Legerin  and eight Britons who  have died fighting with the YPG among them  the incredibly passionate  Anna Campbell  from Lewes , Sussex https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2018/03/anna-campbell-death-of-freedom-fighter.html

Anna Cambpell

 The withdrawal by Trump dishonours the memory of all who travelled to Syria to join anti-ISIS militias but lost  their lives. The democratic system founded by the peoples in north-eastern Syria is an oasis of freedom and democracy for all the Middle Eastern peoples, it is the breath of peace and fraternity. In this respect, Arabs, Turks, Persians, Azeris, Armenians, Syriacs and all peoples, and all faiths, should protect this oasis of freedom, as an attack against it would be an attack against all peoples’ desire for freedom and democracy.The Rojava project is now in imminent peril. Here is a link to an international call to defend Rojava .https://riseup4rojava.org/call-international-call-riseup-defend-rojava/

President Erdogan has been threatening a Turkish assault on the Kurdish-controlled territories for some time. Last December, Trump and Erdogan discussed the latter’s threat to launch a military operation. Any uncoordinated US withdrawal has the potential to lead to a military free-for-all in which SDF, Turkish and Syrian troops become involved with potentially disastrous humanitarian consequences. The attack by Turkey clearly threatens not only the SDF, which has made it clear that it will respond by whatever means are necessary, but also hundreds of thousands of Kurdish and other civilians..

The situation is further complicated by the fact that Kurdish forces are currently guarding 11,000 Islamic State prisoners, including some 2,000 foreign fighters. There are another 70,000 people in al-Hawl refugee camp, which has been described as an incubator for the re-emergence of Islamic State.

There are already thousands of people fleeing the area looking for a safe place to go. Many are  on the move for the third time in recent years after previously fleeing Aleppo and other Syrian cities ravaged and flattened from the unrelenting war. Turkish forces invaded Afrin in Syria in 2018, following the withdrawal of US troops, in operations that saw them accused of “indiscriminately shelling civilians” by international human rights groups.
The Turkey assault is facing international condemnation . The European Union has warned that Turkey' hostilities would " further undermine the stability of the whole region."Campaign Against Arms Trade’s (CAAT) Andrew Smith also warned that an invasion of northern Syria “could have devastating consequences.” He said: “By arming the Turkish military, the British government is making itself complicit in how those weapons are used.
“The UK must stop aiding Turkey’s human rights abuses with arms sales and political support.”
Since 2014, Britain has licensed £1.1 billion worth of weapons to be sold to Turkey.
Labour shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry said: “As a matter of urgency, the government must demand firstly that Kurdish representatives are brought into the newly constituted Syrian constitutional reform committee.
“Secondly, Turkey must not increase its military presence in northern Syria or its support for Syrian militias operating on its behalf.
“Thirdly, there must be no attempt by Turkey to use this announcement as a green light to return non-Kurdish Syrian refugees into northern Syria in an effort to change the region’s ethnic composition.”
These actions of the US and Turkey will spark a new humanitarian disaster in a country that is already  on its knees.
 On Thursday, thirteen of the biggest UK unions urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to condemn Turkey’s invasion of Syria – and act to avert ethnic cleansing and potential genocide.
Together with Thompson’s Solicitors, they have demanded that Johnson uses the UK’s influence to prevent a humanitarian disaster and potential genocide as a result of the Turkish invasion of north and east Syria.
The unions include Unite, GMB, CWU, ASLEF, TSSA, USDAW, BFAWU, PCS, NEU, RMT, Prospect, EIS and GFTU.
They warned that President Trump’s ‘appalling’ abandonment of the fragile region will see Turkey seek its own military and strategic advantage which will undoubtedly lead to ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Kurds as well as a resurgence of ISIS in the region.
The unions say that the UK must show its clear and utter condemnation of Turkey’s invasion, calling for a no fly zone and international force deployment. The UK right now must immediately distance itself from Washingtons  forein policy madness and Ankara's antipathy and hostility towards the kurds What a travesty this whole torrid episode is, and what a tragedy for the kurds.
 The people of Rojava have called for the diplomatic isolation of the Turkish state, and also for  the institution of a no-fly zone above Northern and Eastern Syria and solidarity from all those that ally themselves with the struggle for freedom and equality. As Internationalists (both inside and outside North-East Syria) we must meet their call for help in whatever way we can. Here’s what you can do to defend democracy:
 Boycott goods and services provided by the Turkish state and the companies which supply it. Find out who is arming them and make the business of supporting fascism all the more difficult for them. Contact trade unions that represent the people that work for these companies, urge them to follow in the footsteps of the Scottish Rolls Royce workers that defied Pinochet, and prevent the manufacturing and selling of weapons to the fascist Turkish state:

Airbus – Unite the Union
AXA – Unite the Union
BAE Systems – IndustriALL Global Union
Jaguar-LandRover – GMB Union
Rolls Royce – Unite the Union

 
Here is a link to 15 aid organisations calling for aid and for attacks on civilians to stop. https://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/15-aid-agencies-warn-humanitarian-crisis-north-east-syria-civilians-risk
Don't be like shameful Donald Trump, please let the Syrians and the Kurds  know they haven't been a abandoned and help provide medical relief and support. Solidarity should be shown at this grave moment in time and we should raise our  collective voices against this attack on the kurdish people, because if left unchallenged this  crisis is only going to grow and the human cost will rise quickly and horrifically.
Misty Buswell, Middle East policy director at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), expressed deep concern about the impact Turkey's assault will have "on civilians, including our own staff members and their families, and the destabilizing effect this will have on a population that has already borne the brunt of the eight-year-long conflict in Syria."
"Many of these people have already been displaced multiple times and suffered horribly under the brutal rule of ISIS," said Buswell, "only to be facing yet another crisis."
Here is a link to an emergency appeal to do what you can to help.To give you an idea of what emergency supplies cost  a mobile medical pack for an aid worker is £135 . A basic hygeine pack for people fleeing is just £10. Give whatever you can.

https://donate.doctorsoftheworld.org.uk/page/49938/donate/1?utm_medium=email&utm_source=engagingnetworks&utm_campaign=utm_email&utm_content=October+11+2019+-+W19IEB002B+14:18:10&ea.url.id=4157940&forwarded=true y

Kurds and their friends in Kurdistan,and all around the world are currently mobilising and taking to the streets in protest at the Turkish incursion into  northern Syria.  Please consider joining emergency rallies  to stop the Turkish invasion,

SATURDAY, 12th October, 12 noon – 4pm

CARDIFF, Nye Bevan statue (Queen Street)

Cardiff and Wales will be joining a Global Day Of Action against the Turkish Occupation and ethnic cleansing of Kurds in North-East Syria. They will be be meeting at noon at the Nye Bevan statue (Queen Street) to hand out leaflets and stand in solidarity with the Kurds and all the people of North-East Syria.

Details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/986407898366569/?ti=icl

SATURDAY, 12th October, 1.30pm – 3.30pm

GLASGOW, Buchanan Street, G1 2

Demo in Solidarity with the Kurds Against Turkish Invasion

Details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2342112042552723/?ti=wa

SUNDAY, 13th October, 1 – 4pm

LONDON, BBC Portland Place

Date: Sunday 13th October 2019 Place: BBC Portland Place Time: 13.00

Join to demonstrate in solidarity with Kurds and all the people of North-East Syria!

Details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2607334165980151/ 

To keep up to date please  follow:

RiseUp4Rojava,https://riseup4rojava.org/
Kongra Star Diplomacy,https://twitter.com/starrcongress/status/1181648990334590977
Kurdistan Students Union-UK,https://twitter.com/kurdishstudents?lang=en  https://en-gb.facebook.com/KurdishStudentsUK/
Kurdistan Solidarity Network https://kurdishsolidaritynetwork.wordpress.com/on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/KurdistanSolNet/ & Twitter.https://twitter.com/kurdistansolnet?lang=en
and the Kurdish Solidarity Campaign  https://twitter.com/kurdscampaign?lang=en
https://en-gb.facebook.com/kurdistansolidaritycampaign/

Finally here is a link to  two a petitions you could sign.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/276661
https://www.change.org/p/theresa-may-mp-stop-turkey-defend-the-kurds-no-fly-zone-halt-eu-arms-sales-to-turkey

I would encourage all to express their solidarity directly to the kurdish people  in defence of their human rights by raising awarenress of the atrocities committed  by Erdogens government. Our solidarity can defeat tyranny.
Long live kurdistan
Biji Rojava! Biji SDF! Biji Karkerên!