For more than 6 weeks we have had to watch the Turkish state attack and

occupy together with Islamist groups like ISIS and Al-Qaida Afrin, the

most western canton of Rojava. In this extermination campaign, the

invaders are neither deterred by the deliberate bombardment of civilians

nor by the use of chemical weapons. The Islamist mercenaries and fascist

Turkish soldiers leave a trail of devastation, plunder, rape and murder,

they practice an ethnic cleansing of the territory of Kurds. So far,

more than 300 civilians and many militants have given their lives,

dozens of villages have been destroyed and hundreds of thousands of

people have had to leave their homes.

Submited to Enough is Enough.

Note: Enough is Enough is not organizing any of these events, we are publishing this text for people across the US and Europe to be able to see what is going on and for documentation only.

Deutschsprachige Version: hier.

If Afrin falls … it will have been too late!

For more than 6 weeks we have had to watch the Turkish state attack and

occupy together with Islamist groups like ISIS and Al-Qaida Afrin, the

most western canton of Rojava. In this extermination campaign, the

invaders are neither deterred by the deliberate bombardment of civilians

nor by the use of chemical weapons. The Islamist mercenaries and fascist

Turkish soldiers leave a trail of devastation, plunder, rape and murder,

they practice an ethnic cleansing of the territory of Kurds. So far,

more than 300 civilians and many militants have given their lives,

dozens of villages have been destroyed and hundreds of thousands of

people have had to leave their homes.

Despite the determined resistance of Afrin’s people and their YPG / YPJ

/ SDF defense units, the Turkish army manages to gain more ground every

day. While the Turkish offensive was stuck in the border area of the

canton for the first month, in recent days important small towns such as

Raco and Shera have been conquered by the invaders. Their destination is

Afrin City, the place where civilians have fled the villages and small

towns they have conquered so far.

This is made possible by the massive use of modern NATO technology such

as fighter jets, artillery, tanks and drones. The fascist-Islamist war

of aggression against Afrin is not only Erdogan’s attempt to destroy the

Kurdish freedom movement; While Russia opens the door to the Turkish Air

Force and the Syrian Assad regime is de facto inactive, NATO actively

supports this war with intelligence information, military technology,

weapons and ammunition from Western factories. The hypocritical messages

from the palaces of power can not hide the fact that this war is nothing

but the reckoning of the rulers with the revolution of Rojava. It is a

reckoning with the attempt to counter the capitalist system with a

self-determined alternative of radical democracy, women’s liberation,

real gender equality, and social ecology.

As radical left around the world, we should be aware of the historical

significance of these days. The attack on Afrin is an attempt to destroy

the most promising revolutionary project of our generation. The Rojava

Revolution is not only the only significant emancipatory perspective in

the Middle East, but also one of the worldwide last remaining glimmers

of hope for another world.

Like no other revolution of the last decades, Rojava has inspired us and

shown us how radical and beautiful the struggle for the liberation of a

society can be. The heroic resistance of YPG and YPJ in Kobani and the

self-organization of the population under the initiative of

self-liberating women cast a spell over thousands of leftists,

anarchists, socialists and feminists. Worldwide, this revolution was

discussed, admired and given solidarity, hundreds of people made their

way to Rojava and participated in the resistance against ISIS and the

building of a new society. In spite of all the contradictions, the

Rojava movement, with its determination, its attachment to the people

and the concrete implementation of our utopias, has become the most

important focal point of the global struggle against capitalism,

patriarchy and racism.

Today, this project is standing with its back to the wall. The war over

Afrin is a struggle for existence or not-existence for the revolution in

Rojava. If Afrin falls, Minbij will fall as well. With a victory for the

Turkish state west of the Euphrates, American imperialism will also

rethink its regional strategy and consider to hand over northern Syria

to Turkey-affiliated Islamist militias under the FSA label aka ISIS and

Al-Qaida / Al-Nusra. This would not only be the beginning of ethnic

cleansing and the bloody end of the Rojava revolution, but also the

beginning of a new phase in the development of Turkish fascism as a

source of worldwide Islamism – Erdogan’s dreams of the new Ottoman

Empire with him as Sultan at the head would no longer have any

counterpart. The dictatorship inside would be consolidated for decades,

the colonial expansion would be extended to the outside. The Middle East

would be driven deeper into the chaos of war and annihilation without a

force that can develop an emancipatory alternative.

The fact that developments in the Middle East have a direct impact on

political and social processes also in Europe and other parts of the

world has not only been shown by the attacks of ISIS in recent years.

The rise of racism, sexism and antisemitism in European societies, the

new militarism and the ever-increasing calls for the authoritarian state

and thus the comeback of the radical right, are directly related to

this. We must be aware that the conditions under which we, the radical

left, are struggling in the centers of power are also shaped by the

international balance of power. And the same is true of the political

conditions in the metropolises of capitalism, which influence the

conditions under which our friends fight in Afrin.

The people of Rojava are still standing, YPG / YPJ / SDF are opposed to

these developments. And this resistance has so far only been successful

because people have decided to give everything for it. However, they

will not be able to defend against the brutal superiority of the

attacking Turkish army and their Islamist helpers without international

support. But despite weeks of worldwide protests, the states of North

America via Europe to Russia hold on to their cruel decision to end this

revolution, and seem to have sealed the fate of the people in Rojava.

The resistance in Afrin will only succeed if we are ready to give it

all, even if it is the most valuable.

We will not continue to watch this injustice passively. We will not

leave the people in Rojava and our fighting comrades alone, because the

war against Afrin is just as much a war against us. The Turkish attack

on Afrin is NATO’s political, economic and military push into the heart

of our revolutionary struggles, dreams and hopes. We will carry this war

back to where it is approved, supported, legitimized and produced. We

will drive up the costs for those who benefit from this war. We will

hold to account those who endorse the murder of civilians and legitimize

them as a supposed “war on terror”. And we will make the deafened

European public listen up and remind our societies that we all have a

responsibility for what governments are doing on our behalf.

In this sense, we call upon all emancipatory forces worldwide to break

the silence and give a voice to the people of Rojava that no one else

can ignore. If not us, who else will be able to remind our societies of

their responsibilities? The situation in Afrin is an existential threat

to all our revolutionary perspectives – when, if not now, is it time to

risk everything? If Afrin falls, it will be too late. Only if we give

everything, we will be able to win everything.

The past solidarity actions with the resistance in Afrin have been right

and good. We greet all the comrades who have been organizing,

demonstrating and carrying out direct actions for weeks. These were

important moments, but they are not enough. In the current situation,

the murderous silence and the support of fascist Turkey by the

international community forces us to other means. We must exercise our

right of self-defense of our hopes.

Direct actions can not only be a concrete intervention in the war and

propaganda machinery of the Turkish state and its helpers, but have much

more potential to draw attention to the extraordinary urgency of the

situation. Burning Turkish embassies and consulats, sabotaged armaments

companies and mass militant actions against the symbols of capitalist

and imperialist rule will break the silence and make the atrocities of

Turkish fascism no longer ignorable. The system in Europe thrives on us

to engage and stun, to pacify conflicts and contradictions – let this

false illusion of social peace go up in flames. Let us show the rulers

that we will resist the attacks with the people of Rojava and defend by

all means the revolution in Rojava, which is also our revolution.

We call on Monday, 12.3.2018 to start with this militant campaign

wherever we can hit the rulers: Radical, creative and courageous,

involve you and organize local actions as a prelude to a resistance that

will show the powerful of this world that Afrin is not alone. Like the

people of Rojava, we also say: “Together we will fight, together we will

lose, or together we will win”.

Afrin will not fall!

Biji Berxwedana Afrin!

Long live the international solidarity!

Radical cells in the heart of the beast

3/8/2018

We will collect all direct actions in solidarity with the Afrin

resistance and possible targets at: fight4afrin.noblogs.org

Contact: fight4afrin[at]riseup.net (PGP Key here: https://fight4afrin.noblogs.org/contact/)

Read also: Solidarity Action for #Afrin: #Antifa Enternasyonal T-Shirts – Profits go to Heyva Sor

Support the Enough is Enough Info-Café

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

Reddit

Tumblr

Pinterest

LinkedIn

Print

Email

Pocket

Telegram

WhatsApp

Skype



Like this: Like Loading...