Evacuation on the first day of Turkish ‘Operation Peace Spring’, October 9th, 2019.
(Photo of evacuation in Northeast Syria from DC Business)
During the Morsi regime in Egypt in 2012-2013, the Muslim Brotherhood were ruthlessly attacking & brutalizing Arab Spring protesters in the streets & we wrote many posts describing & denouncing their actions. But when the military turned on the Muslim Brotherhood & began piling up their bodies in unspeakable street massacres, those who stood for human rights denounced the military & defended the Muslim Brotherhood regardless of their earlier conduct against the Arab Spring. That is the character of human rights solidarity which at no time ever adopts the methods & politics of the oppressors.
When the Kurdish leadership, in the struggle for Kurdish self-determination, operated opportunistically in maneuvers between the US-coalition & the Assad dictatorship instead of standing with the Syrian Arab Spring, sharp criticism was required. But when they come under military attack by Turkish ground forces & bombers, we brush all that criticism aside to stand with Kurdish civilians against genocide. That should not have to be explained to those with an elementary sense of human decency. Only Stalinists & Assadists who support war, occupation, & genocide are incapable of understanding that elementary principle of human solidarity & are gloating.
(Photo is Kurdish in North Kurdistan in flight from Turkish bombers from Twitter sources)
CNN reports that thousands of Kurdish, Arab, & Assyrian civilians are fleeing the border towns in turmoil after the Turkish ground invasion & heavy airstrikes. They report the streets are choked with people fleeing in a panic, six to seven people piled on motorcycles, stuffing belongings & mattresses in cars. With Idlib to the west under Syrian & Russian bombardment, there is no place for them to run.
Stand with the Kurds. Demand the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military forces & mercenaries from Syria.
(Photo from Western Kurdistan from several sources on Twitter)
Turkey & its supporters are calling ‘Operation Peace Spring’ against the Kurds a fight against terrorism. Erdogan tweeted: “Operation Peace Spring will neutralize terror threats against Turkey & lead to the establishment of a safe zone, facilitating the return of Syrian refugees to their homes. We will preserve Syria’s territorial integrity & liberate local communities from terrorists.” That is exactly what Syria, Russian, Iranian, & US-coalition forces claim to justify carpet bombing of civilians. It’s ‘war on terror’ stuff combined with anti-Semitic claims that the Kurds are trying to create another Israel in Syria.
At this point in time, if you support the bombing of Idlib & the Turkish slaughter of Kurds, you are on the side of barbarism, war, & genocide. The only principled demand is for the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all foreign military forces & mercenaries from Syria. Those who continue to call for US military intervention to assist the Kurds only demonstrate that they are incapable of learning from experience.
(Photo is Turkish air strikes on Ras al-Ain city of al-Hasakah countryside, Syria)
As Turkish troops & war planes converge on the Syrian Kurds, Syrian & Russian bombers intensify their genocidal onslaught on Idlib. Those who refuse to understand US policy goals in Syria continue to play stupid by looking to the US Pentagon to address the issues of war & genocide in Syria.
Assadist ideologues are openly & gleefully applauding Turkey’s genocidal onslaught against Syrian Kurds just as they have always applauded Syrian & Russian bombing of civilians. It doesn’t matter that Syrian Kurds collaborated with the US & also periodically attempted to collaborate with the Assad dictatorship. It was of course a monstrous betrayal of the Syrian Arab Spring by the Syrian Kurd leadership but those who stand for justice never endorse the methods & politics of the oppressors & always without compromise oppose genocide. It’s not a question of karma or chickens coming home to roost. The US is standing aside to facilitate a genocide & anyone with an ounce of human decency opposes that.
We stand with Syrian Kurds & do not demand US troops remain to protect the Kurds but demand the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of Turkish, US-coalition, Iranian, Russian, Hezbollah forces & mercenaries from Syria.
London, UK #StandWithKashmir protest, October 27th, 2019.
A profile of one of the little boys arrested & beaten by Indian forces in Kashmir:
Over one million Kashmiri workers lost their jobs as a result of India’s blockade. Commerce losses in the two months of blockade are US$703,600,000 (Rs 5,000 crore). India calls this ‘normalcy’. & ‘development’.
https://kashmirobserver.net/2019/10/04/kashmir-clampdown-over-10-lakh-workers-lose-jobs/?
Boys of the Cave by Zulekha Adam & illustrated by Rollie Mukherjee is now available on Amazon.