Glasgow Protest Against Turkish Attack On Kurds.

         On Saturday, 12th. October, Glasgow like many other cities across the world people took to the streets in protest at the Turkish savage invasion against the Kurds in northern Syria. Another onslaught by a state on people trying to shape their world in a fairer manner than the states that surround them. No matter the ideology, the particular faith or politics, the people should always resist any state waging war on another. In all these state conflicts, it is never the leaders and political ballerinas that face the death and destruction, it is the ordinary people. When a state wages war it is a well trained well armed military machine against civilians, bus drivers, plumbers, shop keepers, teachers, grandparents and grandchildren, these are the people that suffer most.

      Glasgow's protest was a varied collection of groups and individuals, in my estimate probably in the region of over three hundred, lots of banners and flags and lots of passion and speeches. We must keep up the protests at this all too familiar act of man's inhumanity to man.

 

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Stateless Democracy.

        Recently, for some, Rojava has been hailed as the new 1936 Spain, with its libertarian dreams being painfully brought to life, this being the case it would be expected that the surrounding states would take a dim view of that type of structure, and work to undermine its progress. Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, doesn't give it any of that "oxygen of publicity", that it spews out on trivia, sex and scandal. Despite this Rojava has struggled painfully on its course to that better world. However, the cards are stacked against it, as the various states, all of them opposed to any form of libertarian society, try to strangle the dream, as they did in Spain all those years ago, with sanctions, and brutal violence. Now the ultimate weapon is being used in Rojava, starving the region of the blood of life, water. Nothing is too sadistic, nothing is too brutal, as they work hard at stopping the idea of a libertarian society gaining ground. To our imperialist masters with their state apparatus, death and destruction is a price worth paying as they preach their mantra, capitalism or nothing.  

This from Insurrection News:

        The water and electricity cuts continue on its 4th day in Kobane. The Firat river’s water supply is so low that the base of the river, at least 3 kilometres in width is visible. The canton has announced that the cuts are indefinite. Those who have wells are sharing their water supply with their neighbours but this is a limited and ineffective alternative and thousands are without a drop of water.
       The use and control of natural resources has been something that the Turkish state has used against the Kurds for decades. As the crackdown and mass human rights violations against the Kurds continue in Bakur, Rojava is slowly strangled with the ongoing humanitarian embargo and water cuts. Worse, when Turkey finally releases the water from their end hundreds of villages will be flooded causing massive damages and disruptions to agriculture and livestock (as it did last year) which is the backbone of the economy. This is a tactic that Turkey has used repeatedly against Rojava; as did Assad by cutting water supplies to Kurdish regions or rerouting water from Kurdish areas to Arab regions.
        Terrorism takes many forms, whether its bombing and destroying thousands of villages, to burning hundreds of acres of forests and farms, to stopping water flowing further down to other regions, to embargoes. The use of the environment and land to oppress and terrorise the colonised is a well used tactic by states against indigenous communities and minorities.
       The motto of the Rojava Revolution is “Resistance is Life”, but I wonder how a deeply oppressed, economically underdeveloped society that lacks resources, infrastructure and access to multiple borders is able to resist such terrorism.

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When Criticism Is A Crime.

       The state’s survival is dependent on submissiveness and control, hence it will always try to find ways and means of stifling any form of dissent. Anarchist philosophy is based on the creating a state free society, so naturally it goes without saying, anarchist will always be at the sharp end of that state repression. In countries across the globe, anarchist autonomous centres are evicted and trashed, their papers closed down, and in many cases, the supporters imprisoned on trumped up charges. I have always seen Turkey as an extremely repressive state, more so than some of the others in the West. Many years ago I was involved in a campaign in support of a Kurdish lawyer in Turkey, who had been imprisoned for ten years, his crime, editing a Kurdish language magazine in Turkey, the Kurdish language, at that time, being banned in Turkey. Today in Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkey things have deteriorated much further down the repression route. Journalists are detained at the slightest hint of criticism of the Turkish state, radio stations are closed if they don’t shower the state and its psychopathic leader with praise. Now they have gone one step further, you don’t have to criticise the Turkish state, you can find yourself in prison if you dare to write an article in support of people in another country struggling to build democracy. This is the nature of the beast, “the state”, they are all dependent on your acceptance of their monopoly on power. Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, will point to regimes in other lands and label them “repressive”, despotic” and “undemocratic” but they are all just different flavours of the same poison. The state is an authoritarian edifice that will die if the people grasp their freedom, and freedom will die of we allow the state to flourish.
This from Freedom Press:

Meydan issue 30.

       The editor of Meydan Gazette in Istanbul was jailed for a year and three months on December 22nd for “propagandising the methods of a terror organisation” in a free-speech case which dragged on for nearly a year.

        Hüseyin Civan and the Gazette were taken to court after an investigation by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor over a December 2015 issue of the paper, which has supported Kurdish revolutionaries fighting in Rojava. The three offending articles were titled “Both Arrival and Departure of State is From Fear” “Banned Until Further Notice” and “Recreating Life.”

       Representing the Gazette and Civan, lawyer Davut Erkan stated that the decision was illegal and would be appealed, if necessary, all the way to the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights.
      In a statement Meydan, which is based just a few streets away from Gezi Park, said:

Our managing editor was charged with “propagandising for the methods of a terrorist organisation employing coercion, violence or threats, through legitimising, praising or encouraging the use of these methods.”
As we emphasised in articles leading up to the investigation, the “State will never be able to lock away the passion and conviction for freedom of the peoples.”
As an anarchist newspaper we know that the free life we believe in can only be created through struggle. We will never give up writing about what we stand for and distributing what we write. We will continue to resist, act and write against oppression, and against these investigations, custodies and arrests.

Journalists have been heavily targeted in the Erdogan government’s post-coup crackdown, which has been heavily skewed against pro-Kurdish media. In October the left-wing Hayatin Sesi TV station was closed along with 24 other TV and radio stations, and hundreds of reporters have been detained, inspiring even some MPs to attempt civil disobedience in protest.
       The draconian measures have even stretched beyond Turkey’s borders, with the issuing of a red alert to Interpol for well-known Turkish-French journalist Maxime Azadi, who was picked up by Belgian authorities for alleged “co-operation” with terrorists on a year-old warrant on December 23rd.

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Watch The By-stander Behind You.

 

YPG and YPJ fighters in Kobane. Photo: via Derek Wall / Open Democracy.

        In the broth-pot of factions and power mongers that is the Syrian conflict there are so many interested parties with their own agenda. At least ISIS knows who its enemy is, the Western imperialists know who their enemy is, the Assad regime knows who its enemy is, but the Kurds in Syria, they have to look in all directions, their enemies wave many flags. The Western imperialists are not keen on them getting too strong, Assad would like to see them subjugated within his domain, ISIS would like to wipe them of the face of the planet, but they also have to look at those not openly involved in the power struggle that is decimating the land and the people of Syria.

 This from ANF NEWS:

YPG emplacements east of Hesekê bombed by an unidentified jet

      The General Command of YPG (People's Defense Units) has reported that their emplacements to the east of Hesekê were bombed by an unidentified jet on 19th of February.

Sunday, February 21, 2016 10:30 AM

NEWS DESK - ANF

      The General Command of YPG (People's Defense Units) has reported that their emplacements to the east of Hesekê were bombed by an unidentified jet on 19th of February.
      According to the statement, the YPG emplacements in the area of Hekil Tişrîn were attacked by an unidentified military jet at around 09:30 of 19th February.
       While the jet continued flying over the mentioned area for half an hour, it hit the YPG emplacements firstly with hand grenades then with bullets, which left 3 YPG fighters dead and 2 others wounded.
       A committee of investigation formed after the incident continues its analysis of the unexploded hand grenades fired by the jet in order to find out to which state the jet belongs. YPG said they knew that the jet was not affiliated to the international coalition formed against ISIS.
       YPG stressed that they will treat the attack as a hostile approach and adopt a stance accordingly.

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What Price a Child's Life?

      It is difficult to grasp the vicious brutality of the Turkish state and its savage repression of the Kurds who live within its authoritarian domain. Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, seldom mentions what is happening on the streets of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's fiefdom. For generations these Kurds have had this crazy idea that they would like to control their own lives and speak their own language, for this heinous crime, they have suffered continuous brutal repression from the Turkish state. Recently their treatment has got even more savage and brutal, deaths mount, children killed by the state ever increases, and the Western "democracies" look the other way.

       These links tell part of the story, but can't convey the true personal suffering and misery of the families and friends involved. The video helps to bring home the inhumane callous savagery of the Turkish state and it apparatus of repression. 

KJA – ‘Nekuje’, Children killed by Turkish security forces

KJA – Destruction of our People’s Graveyards

KJA – Lists of civilian deaths, arrests, curfews, and security zones

     This video tells a heart breaking story of child murders perpetrated by the Turkish state. In Athens, December 15, 2008, 15 year old Alexis  Grigoropoulos was shot dead in the street by a police officer. His death sparked some of the worst and longest running riots in Greece's history, covering the whole country. Why no such anger for this list of young lives struck down by the state? So many young deaths should multiply the anger.

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Syria, The Compassionate Face Of Imperialism!!!

       It can be taken as a truth, that all those involved in the bombing of Syria, do not have at heart, the well-being of the Syrian people. So many nations from across the globe, running in to help the Syrian people?? In this capitalist, imperialist world, it beggars belief. What the motives are for each of those nations involved is extremely difficult to get a handle on, one thing is sure, at the baseline, it is self interest. Who stands to gain what if this happens, who stands to lose what if that happens, is all very complicated if we don't have all the facts. As in all wars, truth and facts are casualties. There is no point looking to that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media for clarity, they pedal illusion, wishful thinking and propaganda.

 Imperialist building blocks of democracy.

     Counter-Punch, has an interesting article that helps to supply informative parts of the jigsaw, that is the Middle East, Syria in particular.

------As for Washington’s “strategy”, it now boils down to the CIA need of a new rat line. That could imply sitting on the – weaponized – sidelines watching Turkmen and Kurds slug it out, thus creating an opening for the Turkish Army to intervene, and the Russian Air Force to prevent it, with all hell guaranteed to break loose. ------

Read the full article HERE:

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Western Imperialists And Chaos.

       Who the hell knows what is going on in the Middle East? It is difficult to get accurate information from our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media. Meanwhile, in our confusion thousands of ordinary innocent people die a brutal death, and thousands more are maimed and traumatised. However, you can rest assured that what is going on is no accident, no trick of fate, no streak of misfortune, but the direct result of planned actions by power hungry states and their psychopathic leaders, imperialist and religious nutters. As far as the Western imperialists are concerned, chaos in that region suits them, while the blood flows, creating divisions between the people, the area's resources are there for the plundering. Strong governments in that region doesn't suit the powerful Western imperialists, much easier to rape and plunder a land while it is in chaos. Perhaps the greatest misfortune to befall the people of that region is the fact that they are living on top of rich deposits of oil and gas, desirable commodities of the imperialist class. Turkey is playing the usual state power and politics game with the lives of the people, as it oscillates between supporting ISIS and bombing ISIS. Not through any change in its approach to humanity, but simply a desire for power.

 This from News Now:

       "Ankara's recent adoption of aggressive policies towards both the PKK and the ISIL has considerably raised the risk of terrorist attacks and sustained civil unrest inside the country," Wolfango Piccoli of risk research firm Teneo Intelligence said in a note.
      Yet on both fronts, Erdoğan looks to be hoping to seize opportunity out of crisis. He is reviving Turkey's international standing with the more robust stance on ISIL, but also undermining the pro-Kurdish opposition and bolstering nationalist support at home with the attacks on the PKK. Why now?
      Smarting from an election setback in June, when the AK Party he founded lost its majority and the pro-Kurdish opposition HDP secured enough votes to enter parliament for the first time, Erdoğan is keen to win back nationalist support.
       "The likely target here is instead the HDP. By striking hard at the PKK, the Turkish government is pressuring the HDP to pick a side," said Erik Meyersson, an assistant professor at the Stockholm School of Economics, in an article on his website.
      "Either it denounces PKK to end violence, risking political blowback among its Kurdish base, or it adopts a more pro-Kurdish rhetoric, risking the ire of the Turkish public as well as the judiciary, which has a long history of banning Kurdish parties and politicians."
        A collapse of the Kurdish vote and fears over security could, in the event of an early election, revive the AKP vote and with it Erdoğan's ambition to change the constitution, investing his presidency with broad new powers.

Read the full article HERE:

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Kobane.

 An Appeal:

This is why we stand with Kobane

Please watch/share this video and donate if possible to the below Firefund to help restore the heroic city of Kobanê. Those recently massacred by TURK-ISIS in Suruç were on their way to assist the city, and this is a great way to honor their sacrifice. I know and can vouch for those working on the project, and it was developed by the official Kobanê Reconstruction Board.

[Link to Give] --> http://www.firefund.net/

* I was also personal witness to the battle of Kobanê last year, and I learned more about humanity by watching the Kurds defiantly resist and repel ISIS there, than all of my years up to that point.

This is why we stand with Kobane Please watch/share this video and donate if possible to the below Firefund to help restore the heroic city of Kobanê. Those recently massacred by TURK-ISIS in Suruç were on their way to assist the city, and this is a great way to honor their sacrifice. I know and can vouch for those working on the project, and it was developed by the official Kobanê Reconstruction Board.[Link to Give] --> http://www.firefund.net* I was also personal witness to the battle of Kobanê last year, and I learned more about humanity by watching the Kurds defiantly resist and repel ISIS there, than all of my years up to that point.
Posted by International Brigades of Rojava on Thursday, 23 July 2015

Turkey's "Blowback".

      The Kurdish problem has always been a thorn in the side of Turkey, but now it appears that Turkey has found an answer to that problem, IS. Having allowed an open border for IS, and allowing arms to roll through, Turkey now seems to be prepared to stand by and let IS do its dirty work, crush the Kurds. Though it may suffer "blowback" as hundreds of thousands of Kurds cross into Turkey and the resident Kurdish population rise up in anger at Turkey's shameful and brutal alliance with IS. It also appears that the mighty "super-powers" with their million pound smart bombs and faster than sound million pound aircraft, can't stop a bunch of religious fundamentalists from moving in and massacring a town, Or are they not that interested in saving the people of that unfortunate town?

This from ROAR Magazine:

      Kurdish anger is exploding onto the streets of Turkey and across Europe in protest at Western inaction in Kobanê and Turkish collusion with ISIS. As the extremist militants of the Islamic State close in on the besieged town on the Turkish-Syrian border, with the People’s Protection Units (YPG) running low on ammunition and Kurdish commanders warning of an impending massacre, the Turkish government and the US-led coalition appear to be content to stand by and let ISIS unleash a bloodbath in the city.

     In recent days, thousands of Kurds have descended upon the Turkish town of Suruç, just miles from Kobanê, in an attempt to cross the border, break the siege and bring supplies and reinforcements to their family, kin and comrades. Turkish troops have responded by sealing off the border crossing and firing teargas and rubber bullets both at Turkish Kurds trying to break into Syria and at Syrian refugees fleeing towards Turkey. Cut off from the outside world and without much air support, the YPG fighters are left to fend for themselves.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Oil And Religion, A Bad Mix.

      What is really happening in Iraq and Syria, where does Turkey stand in this bloodshed, where does IS get all their hard wear. Turkey has a vested interest in seeing the Kurds defeated, but as usual, it is all sold as good verses evil, when in fact it is all political manoeuvring for power and territory, by the power mongers. The blood of the people will be shed at the dictate of imperial ideology and religious fundamentalism. Under the veil of a battle between good and evil will lie rich oilfields.

     The corporate imperial West is very reluctant to arm the Kurds as they are building a form of federalism and people's assemblies, not the sort of thing the West wants to see in an oil rich area. No where in this can we say that the West is there for the benefit of the people of that area, the West can quite easily turn its back on brutal repression if the benefits are not rich enough for them. Brutal regimes can be our allies, friendly trading partners, as long as they play ball with their resources. It's when those resources are under threat that those same nations become evil empires and have to be destroyed.

This from Roar Mag:

       Moreover, the earlier defeat of IS by the Syrian Kurdish forces both in Kobanê and Sinjar has been interpreted as a slap in the face of the jihadists. Especially the fact that almost a third of the Kurdish militias are made up of women has served to shame the radical Islamists who prefer to see women covered in black robes from head to toe, rather than unveiled, independent and empowered with a AK-47 in their hands.

       The last important fact that has put Kobanê high on the agenda of the Islamic State is that this is the place where the Rojava revolution started on July 19, 2012, when the town was liberated from Assad’s forces and became home to the Democratic People’s Revolution. In this struggle, Syria’s Kurds have declared their autonomy from the state and have since been working to implement democratic confederalism and people’s assemblies as a means to govern themselves.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk