Petition lunched calling upon world powers to stop the Turkish offensive against Afrin
Renowned academics and activists like Noam Chomsky, Michael Hardt and Debbi Bookchin signed a petition calling upon the international community to prevent further aggression from Turkey on the most stable region in north Syria, Afrin.
Here is the full text of the petition :
We, the undersigned academics and human rights activists, insist that the leaders of Russia, Iran, and the U.S. ensure that the sovereignty of Syrian borders is not breached by Turkey and that the people of Afrin in Syria, be allowed to live in peace.
Afrin, whose population is predominantly Kurdish, is one of the most stable and secure regions in Syria. With very little international aid, Afrin has taken in so many Syrian refugees in the last five years that its population has doubled to 400,000. Afrin is now surrounded by enemies: Turkish-supported jihadi groups, al Qaeda, and Turkey. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to attack the U.S. military’s Kurdish partners – the Kurdish YPG or People’s Protection Units – with which the US has been allied against ISIS. Turkey accuses the YPG of being “terrorists” despite the YPG’s long track record of setting up local democratic governing councils in each of the towns it has liberated from ISIS and its repeated statements that it has no interest in Turkey and wishes to function only as a defense force for Syrian Kurds and other ethnicities living in the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (DFNS), also known as “Rojava,” which includes Afrin. Turkey has massed an enormous military force on the Afrin border and President Erdogan has promised to attack the Kurdish-controlled canton with full force, annihilating a peaceful enclave, and putting thousands of civilians and refugees at risk, all in pursuit of its vendetta against the Kurds. An attack of this kind against the peaceful citizens of Afrin is a blatant act of aggression against a peaceful and democratically-governed region and population. Turkey cannot carry out such an attack without the approval of Russia, Iran and Syria – and inaction by the U.S. to stop it. The Kurdish people have endured the loss of thousands of young men and women who joined the YPG, and YPJ women’s force, to rid the world of ISIS. The U.S and the international community have a moral obligation to stand behind the Kurdish people now. We call on U.S. officials and the international community to guarantee Afrin’s stability and security and prevent further Turkish aggression from within Syria and across the Syrian border. Signed, Noam Chomsky, MIT Professor Emeritus Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University, Professor Emeritus Charlotte Bunch, Distinguished Professor of Women's and Gender Studies, Rutgers University Todd Gitlin, sociologist and Chair, PhD Program in Communications, Columbia University David Graeber, Professor of Anthropology, London School of Economics Nadje Al-Ali, Professor of Gender Studies, SOAS University of London David Harvey, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography, CUNY Graduate Center Michael Hardt, political philosopher and Professor of Literature, Duke University Marina Sitrin, Assistant Professor of Sociology, SUNY Binghamton Ann Snitow, activist and Associate Professor, New School Bill Fletcher, Jr., former President of TransAfrica Forum David L. Phillips, Director, Program on Peace-building and Rights, Columbia University Joey Lawrence, photographer and filmmaker Meredith Tax, writer and organizer, North America Rojava Alliance (NARA) Debbie Bookchin, journalist and author, NARA
Source : https://anfenglishmobile.com/news/don-t-let-afrin-become-another-kobane-24280
For more on the Kurds, check out my other posts :
- Who are the Kurds ?
- What is it like to be a kurd ?
- Rojava : a stateless democracy
- Brave female Kurdish fighters
- Kurdish Independence Referendum
- Documentary of the Rojava Revolution : Roza - The Country of two rivers
- Racism and slander against Kurds on steemit
- TURKEY IS KILLING KURDS AS THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY REMAINS SLIENT!!
- Turkey doing it's best to destroy any hope of a Kurdish nation
Save Afrin!!
The Kurds are getting what they deserve. Went with USA against Syria and Russia and took the oil fields of Syria and completely forgot what happened to them after the Gulf War. Not sure they'll ever learn.
People with very little knowledge talk like you... we didn't go with anyone against anyone. When someone attacks you, you defend yourself... that's exactly what we did... US and Russia taking advantage of the situation that's something else. When you're repairing your house and someone comes along and offers you a hammar and nails, you're going to spit on it and tell the person to piss off. The person who gave you the hammar didn't repair the house, you did that and you were going to do it regardless of outside help. Rojava/Kurdistan is home and always has been our home. We will take it back, repair it or even rebuild every chance we get. We already know US isn't our friend, nor is Russia, nor ever was the Assad family, nor is the UN or the international community... nor are you. We have no friends but the mountains, we knew that, we learned that many years ago.. but you can't blame for what we have no control over, we have guns to our in every direction we go. Fight you die, don't fight you die.
And you forget kurds have lived in these areas for thousands of years, Syria only exists for about a century now, western made artificial country (that you wish to keep entact)... you can't stick together something that doesn't want to stick... eventually like what see now, it will fall apart, no matter how much you bomb us and kill us. We fought for our lands, language, rights and freedom for over a century and we will fight for a century more. The peace and stabilty only depends on when you're willing to sit at a table and compromise.
If it's so good to be in Kurdistan, then the Kurdish troublemakers in the streets of our cities should better leave our countries in Europe and hurry back home.
I don't believe you understood the issue at hand... Kurdistan would be great if it won't occupied, if people Kurds could learn and teach their language freely, if they could govern themsleves and won't persecuted or opressed. I doubt Kurds are the trouble makers in your country.
Hi! I am a robot. I just upvoted you! I found similar content that readers might be interested in:
http://theregion.org/article/12538-do-not-let-afrin-become-another-kobane-urgent-statement-by-academics-and-activists
Thank you for finding the original source cheetah. I'm just sharing crucial information (a petition) with the steemit community, not creating or appropriating news.