Join us at the Turkish consulate to tell Turkey and the world: No to
intervention in Syria! No to repression of the Kurdish freedom movement! And freedom
and self-determination to all peoples!
On July 20th, in the Turkish border town of Suruç, an ISIS-affiliated suicide bomber targeted a delegation of socialist youth from around Turkey who were on a solidarity mission to the war-torn Kurdish city of Kobane in northern Syria. Thirty-two people from the delegation - whose mission was to take toys to Kurdish children, plant trees and volunteer in the reconstruction of the city - were killed and more than a hundred were wounded. A simultaneous car bomb attack across the border in Kobane killed two more.
Turkish President Erdogan is using the bombing in Suruç as a pretext to criminalize the Kurdish community and its allies, all under the umbrella on a so-called “War on Terror”. Turkey tells NATO thatit is in fact carrying out a war on ISIS in response to the bombing, but this is far from the truth. The reality is that the AKP, Turkey’s ruling party, has no desire nor will to fight ISIS, whose rise to power they facilitated. Rather, they are using this crisis to neutralize the pro-Kurdish opposition and its platform of equal rights for all peoples, and to reestablish the AKP’s one-party rule.
Kurdish and allied ethnic groups have been able to secure a long stretch of autonomous territory in northern Syria, a region known as Rojava to the Kurds, after a series of victories against the genocidal ISIS. The Turkish state has long supported ISIS, al-Nusra and other murderous gangs as a strategy to prevent the autonomy of Kurds near their border. Now Turkey claims to have changed their attitude and declared war on ISIS, and are making plans with the US to create a buffer zone in northern Syria free of ISIS - and free of the Kurdish forces too. Judging by the small handful of airstrikes against ISIS versus the hundreds of bombing raids against Kurdish forces in northern Iraq, this Turkish military intervention into Syria can really be seen as a fulfillment of the AKP’s promise to prevent the formation of an autonomous Kurdish zone “whatever the cost may be”, not a genuine war on ISIS and al-Nusra.
What is Rojava?
Rojava is a mainly Kurdish populated region of northern Syria, though it is also home to Arab, Assyrian, Armenian, Turkmen and Yazidi peoples. In the midst of the bloodbath that is the Syrian civil war, the people of Rojava declared it to be an autonomous region in 2013. This new experiment in democratic autonomy is based on the principles of direct democracy, gender equity and ecological sustainability, and on a respect for the self-determination and peaceful co-existence of all religions and ethnicities. Rojava is composed of three separate self-governing cantons: Afrin, Kobane and Cizire.
Why should Rojava be defended?
We stand in solidarity with Rojava because what is happening in Rojava is a promising initiative toward a free and democratic Syria, and because we support the safety and self-determination of all peoples. In Rojava, important steps are under way toward women's liberation. Women not only have their own democratic militia, the YPJ, but also have an active and guaranteed position in the people's government. Similarly, the revolution in Rojava allots an equal role to the many diverse religious and ethnic groups in the region. It is experimenting with participatory grassroots democracy across all sectors of society in a manner which may serve as an example of a new liberatory society for the rest of the region and the world.
Demands
We are organizing this action to demand that the Turkish state immediately end its hostilities; including the bombing campaign against Kurdish targets, domestic repression of the pro-Kurdish opposition and plans to establish a so-called “buffer zone” in northern Syria.
We demand that the US stop facilitating Turkey’s war plans, and instead use its diplomatic pressure to lift the embargo on Rojava.
We demand a halt to the collaboration between the Turkish state with ISIS and other gangs which are carrying out genocide in Syria and Iraq.
We intend this protest to be the first step in organizing a Rojava solidarity group in Los Angeles, that will organize future actions, fundraising and education to support the growing revolution in Rojava.
Endorsed by:
International League of Peoples' Struggle - ILPS Southern California
Black Rose Anarchist Federation / Federación Anarquista Rosa Negra
Red Guards - Los Angeles (of the Liaison Committee for a New Communist Party)
Indigenous People's Liberation Party - Califas Region ( IPLP-Califas Region)
activists from the Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas - Los Angeles
Los Angeles IWW
The Free Association of Anarchists
Gabriela Los Angeles
On July 20th, in the Turkish border town of Suruç, an ISIS-affiliated suicide bomber targeted a delegation of socialist youth from around Turkey who were on a solidarity mission to the war-torn Kurdish city of Kobane in northern Syria. Thirty-two people from the delegation - whose mission was to take toys to Kurdish children, plant trees and volunteer in the reconstruction of the city - were killed and more than a hundred were wounded. A simultaneous car bomb attack across the border in Kobane killed two more.
Turkish President Erdogan is using the bombing in Suruç as a pretext to criminalize the Kurdish community and its allies, all under the umbrella on a so-called “War on Terror”. Turkey tells NATO thatit is in fact carrying out a war on ISIS in response to the bombing, but this is far from the truth. The reality is that the AKP, Turkey’s ruling party, has no desire nor will to fight ISIS, whose rise to power they facilitated. Rather, they are using this crisis to neutralize the pro-Kurdish opposition and its platform of equal rights for all peoples, and to reestablish the AKP’s one-party rule.
Kurdish and allied ethnic groups have been able to secure a long stretch of autonomous territory in northern Syria, a region known as Rojava to the Kurds, after a series of victories against the genocidal ISIS. The Turkish state has long supported ISIS, al-Nusra and other murderous gangs as a strategy to prevent the autonomy of Kurds near their border. Now Turkey claims to have changed their attitude and declared war on ISIS, and are making plans with the US to create a buffer zone in northern Syria free of ISIS - and free of the Kurdish forces too. Judging by the small handful of airstrikes against ISIS versus the hundreds of bombing raids against Kurdish forces in northern Iraq, this Turkish military intervention into Syria can really be seen as a fulfillment of the AKP’s promise to prevent the formation of an autonomous Kurdish zone “whatever the cost may be”, not a genuine war on ISIS and al-Nusra.
What is Rojava?
Rojava is a mainly Kurdish populated region of northern Syria, though it is also home to Arab, Assyrian, Armenian, Turkmen and Yazidi peoples. In the midst of the bloodbath that is the Syrian civil war, the people of Rojava declared it to be an autonomous region in 2013. This new experiment in democratic autonomy is based on the principles of direct democracy, gender equity and ecological sustainability, and on a respect for the self-determination and peaceful co-existence of all religions and ethnicities. Rojava is composed of three separate self-governing cantons: Afrin, Kobane and Cizire.
Why should Rojava be defended?
We stand in solidarity with Rojava because what is happening in Rojava is a promising initiative toward a free and democratic Syria, and because we support the safety and self-determination of all peoples. In Rojava, important steps are under way toward women's liberation. Women not only have their own democratic militia, the YPJ, but also have an active and guaranteed position in the people's government. Similarly, the revolution in Rojava allots an equal role to the many diverse religious and ethnic groups in the region. It is experimenting with participatory grassroots democracy across all sectors of society in a manner which may serve as an example of a new liberatory society for the rest of the region and the world.
Demands
We are organizing this action to demand that the Turkish state immediately end its hostilities; including the bombing campaign against Kurdish targets, domestic repression of the pro-Kurdish opposition and plans to establish a so-called “buffer zone” in northern Syria.
We demand that the US stop facilitating Turkey’s war plans, and instead use its diplomatic pressure to lift the embargo on Rojava.
We demand a halt to the collaboration between the Turkish state with ISIS and other gangs which are carrying out genocide in Syria and Iraq.
We intend this protest to be the first step in organizing a Rojava solidarity group in Los Angeles, that will organize future actions, fundraising and education to support the growing revolution in Rojava.
Endorsed by:
International League of Peoples' Struggle - ILPS Southern California
Black Rose Anarchist Federation / Federación Anarquista Rosa Negra
Red Guards - Los Angeles (of the Liaison Committee for a New Communist Party)
Indigenous People's Liberation Party - Califas Region ( IPLP-Califas Region)
activists from the Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas - Los Angeles
Los Angeles IWW
The Free Association of Anarchists
Gabriela Los Angeles
