Defend the Kobanê Resistance!

Smash ISIS, their ally the Turkish state, and the borders choking the Rojava Revolution!

Call for International Solidarity Actions, this weekend, October 11th-12th.

Over 2 years ago, the Kurds of Northern Syria launched the Rojava revolution along autonomous, socialist, feminist and ecological principles. They have now been under constant attack from the Islamic State (ISIS) for more than a year. Thousands of volunteer fighters with Rojava’s Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and its all-women counterpart the YPJ have been struggling to defend their cities and villages. Since July, the North Syrian city of Kobanê, in the central canton of Rojava, has been under siege by ISIS. ISIS fighters, armed with modern U.S. manufactured tanks, artillery, and small arms have been held at bay by the YPG and YPJ armed only with outdated small arms and improvised weapons. Actions by Kurdish and Turkish activists at the Turkish border with Kobanê have fought to remove the border since July in order to join the YPG and YPJ as well as to receive injured Kurds and the elderly and children who are fleeing the fighting.

The ruling party in Turkey, the AKP, has both implicitly and explicitly supported ISIS with armaments and logistical support. The vast majority of jihadists who have travelled to Syria and Iraq have used Turkey as a crossing point under the facilitation of the Turkish government who is using ISIS as a proxy to eliminate the revolution in Rojava.

The US-led coalition formed in September against ISIS is comprised of the same imperialist powers who have artificially designed the current map of the Middle East following WWI, facilitated coups in the region and more recently bombed and occupied Iraq. They have also supplied the weapons currently being used by ISIS. Their air strikes have done little to stop the spread of ISIS. The radical Kurdish movement in the region has repeatedly emphasized that what they need to defeat ISIS is the opening of corridors between Turkish Kurdistan and Syrian Kurdistan as well as armaments that will be effective against the heavy artillery of ISIS.

A vicious and intense fight for the streets of Kobanê is now in full swing as the fate of the Rojava Revolution hangs in the balance. Thus far, the YPG and YPJ have successfully held off the ISIS invasion but the situation is growing increasingly desperate. In the face of ISIS advances, the Kurdish movement in Turkey has launched their own insurrection recognizing that ISIS is fundamentally enabled by Erdogan and the AKP. The PYD of Rojava shares aspirations and affinity with the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey. Radical Islamist gangs, supported by the AKP, have been attacking the demonstrators in Turkey and at least 24 people have died since Tuesday.

Solidarity demonstrations with Kobanê have now taken place in Athens, Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Ireland, New York City and multiple cities in Germany. This upcoming weekend it is time to organize a solidarity demonstration where you live. Rojava is the only alternative for a different kind of Middle East, and it is crucial to demonstrate our solidarity with those fighting to defend it.

Anarchists in Turkey have taken up the fight to stand in solidarity with the autonomous area against ISIS and the Turkish State. Stand in solidarity with our comrades and the ongoing resistance.

For more information on the Rojava Revolution and the fight for Kobanê :

“Rojava: a struggle against borders and for autonomy”: http://roarmag.org/2014/07/kurdistan-rojova-syria-autonomy/

“Why is the world ignoring the revolutionary Kurds in Syria?”: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/08/why-world-ignoring-revolutionary-kurds-syria-isis

“Turkish-Kurdish relations threatened by ISIL”: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/10/turkish-kurdish-relations-threatened-isil-201410892311126563.html

“Anarchists join fight against ISIS to defend Kurdish Autonomous Areas”: https://libcom.org/news/anarchists-join-fight-against-isis-defend-kurdish-autonomous-areas-03102014

Turkish anarchist group, DAF: http://www.facebook.com/anarsistfaaliyetorg

Call for support of DAF by Denver Anarchist Black Cross: http://denverabc.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/call-for-support-for-devrimci-anarsist-faaliyet-daf-and-the-people-of-kobane/