#riseup4rojava

For more context, see this post. From Emergency Committee for Rojava:

Call on members of US Congress to take immediate action to stop the Syrian state’s war on Kurds!

If you are not sure what to say, you can simply follow our script below. You can look up your Senators HERE, look up your Representatives HERE, or prioritize these two leading foreign affairs officials:

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair James Risch

Personal DC office: 202-224-2752 

Foreign Relations Committee office: (202) 224-4651 

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast

Personal office: 202-225-3026

Committee office: (202) 226-8467

Call Script:

Hello, 

I’m calling to express my deep concern about the Syrian Government's attack on Kurdish communities across the Northeast of Syria, and to urge you to take action to protect American security interests and prevent the ethnic cleansing of Kurds.

For several days now, Syrian state forces have been carrying out a major assault on the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces – our longtime allies in the fight against ISIS. In the process, Damascus-backed militias have also released thousands of ISIS fighters from prisons in Raqqa and Hasakah in the process.

As the Syrian army advances, Kurds and other cultural minorities are being forced to flee their homes and subjected to humiliation, torture, execution, and mutilation. Despite numerous attempts by Kurdish leaders to reach a ceasefire agreement, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has refused to halt his attacks, seeking instead to consolidate his power by force. As a result, the country is now facing a humanitarian catastrophe and possible genocide, with cities like Kobani under attack on all sides from Turkish-backed militias and Syrian army forces.

This situation is spiraling out of control, plunging Syria into violence and threatening the security of the United States.

In the interests of peace, stability, and the protection of innocent lives, the United States must intervene immediately to:

Demand that the Syrian government immediately cease all attacks.

Demand that Syrian government forces and Turkish-backed militias withdraw to their positions West of the Euphrates River.

Resume negotiations with the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces for a federated Syria that guarantees the full cultural and democratic rights of all minorities.

Include international monitors for all future talks so that promises and agreements signed by al-Sharaa can be enforced.

I urge you to insist that the Trump administration deescalate the situation, facilitate dialogue, and support the process of democratic integration. The U.S. must also do everything in its power to stop Turkey from exacerbating this conflict.

Defend Rojava!

Die Selbstverwaltung in Rojava ist akut bedroht.

Mural in Exarchia, Athens in memory of anarchist fighter #LorenzoOrsetti, who was killed on 18 March 2019 in combat against lSlS in Baghouz, Syria.

DAY-X IS NOW! Take action immediately: Together we #RiseUp4Rojava!

To all friends of Rojava, to the press and public:

On the night from the 19th to the 20th of November the turkish fascist state started a new operation against the liberated lands of Rojava, North-Eastern Syria and Southern Kurdistan. With a massive air-operation, the cities and regions of Kobane, Derik, Sehba, Minbic, Zirgan/Dirbesiye and Til Temir were bombed. In Southern Kurdistan, Gare and Qendil in the Medya Defence Zones were also bombed by turkish warplanes. The attacks are continuing right now and the fascist boss of the turkish regime, Erdogan, is threatening the region with destruction, extinction and murder to be able to stay in power and to win next years upcoming elections in Turkey. Since the beginning of this year, Rojava has been confronted with continuous attacks, while at the same time, in the mountains of Southern Kurdistan, the turkish army has been using chemical-gas on a daily basis against the resisting guerrilla. #WeSeeYourCrimes and we do not stay silent! The last attacks show another escalation on the ground and have to be understood as a preparation for another invasion. This why we say: “DayX is Now“ and we call on everybody to act according to that!

It has been more than a year now that we renewed our “DayX – Concept“ and according to that we called upon everybody to prepare for this day. For us it was always clear, that the DayX concept only works for certain scenarios, but what if the enemies of our struggle, what if the turkish state doesn’t act according to those scenarios? For more than 3 years now Rojava has been under attack on a daily basis: Drone and airstrikes, artillery shelling, local and regional offensives by the turkish-backed SNA, cutting off water, destroying infrastructure, through embargo and political isolation, etc. 2022 has especially been a year characterized by this. The international hegemonic powers, such as the USA and Russia, both have given a green light to Turkey to do whatever it wants to do. According to the reality on the ground in Rojava, we have come to the conclusion that continuing to wait for “DayX“ will throw us more and more into passivity and will make us not able to react as needed. We need to be very clear about this:Rojava is at war! Rojava is under attack!This is why we need to see thatDayX is Now!

We also see that at the same time that Rojava and Southern Kurdistan are being bombed massively, in Eastern Kurdistan (Rojhilat) and Iran, the crackdown on the people struggling in the streets has reached a new level and just like Turkey, Iran is also bombing Kurdistan. This situation once more shows the reality of the kurdish people and what they are confronted with once they demand a self-determined life. Everybody needs to understand that those who brought the slogan “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi“ to life, are the women of Rojava, are the guerrilla in the mountains of Kurdistan, are the people of Kurdistan! The struggle of the people on the streets in Rojhilat and Iran, the resistance of the guerrilla and the struggle of the people in Rojava is ONE and cannot be understood apart from each other!

For this reason, we call for everybody to get active immediately and take to the streets! Wherever you are in this world: Show your support for the people in Rojava!

→ Bring your action-plan into practice! → Block, Disturb, Occupy! Organize demonstrations, protests, and get creative! → Join the coming Action-Days from the 30.11. – 03.12. #WeSeeYourCrimes

Kurds have been living on the land they call home now for thousands of years. After WW1 and the fall off the Ottoman Empire, the British and French promised Kurds they could continue to reside in those areas peacefully because they intended to create a country called Kurdistan. They went back on that promise and carved up the Kurdish homeland with the creation of some new countries, meaning that the Kurdistan was split between Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria.

All four of those countries have persecuted their Kurdish populations ever since. Turkey has committed the worst atrocities during that time, and up until recently, the Kurdish language, Kurdish names, and more were all banned. Turkey even refuses to call the people Kurds, and refers to them as "Mountain Turks" - a slur designed to brand Kurdish people as barbaric and uneducated.

Thousands of Kurds lost their lives during the 80s and 90s fighting against their Turkish oppressions, and yet the situation barely improved.

During the first Gulf War, the US encouraged Kurds to rise up against Saddam Hussein, but then failed to protect them when they did, resulting in thousands being murdered with chemical weapons.

Cue the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

When the US, UK and other Western countries invaded Iraq, Kurds fought alongside the allies, and against Saddam's army. They managed to create an autonomous region in Iraq because of it. When ISIS began grabbing mass amounts of land in Iraq, the Kurds fought back with allied assistance and stamped them out.

When ISIS started taking land and murdering thousands in Syria, the Syrian President Assad ordered his army to leave the region and he left millions of Kurds there to die. They would have done too if it weren't for the assistance of coalition air strikes and weapons that allowed them to push ISIS back and carve out another autonomous region in their homeland.

That region is Rojava. The people there live under a system called Democratic Confederalism which is based on workers' rights, equality, feminism, and ecology. In principal, this version of democracy is far more democratic than any system used in a Western country today.

The Kurds didn't want to team up with the US in Syria, they just didn't want to die, and they were left with no option after being abandoned by Assad.

Now the US has abandoned the Kurds and left them to die too. They're no longer "useful" and heaven forbid America is seen to be assisting a people who don't bow to the international banking cartel, and are determined to live in a real democracy.

The US said it wanted to bring "democracy" to the Middle East, but not THAT sort of democracy.

Assad and Russia refuse to back Kurds now because they worked with the US instead of being murdered. And Turkey (the biggest oppressor of the Kurdish people, and the country that literally funded ISIS) has invaded their land with one of the largest armies in NATO with the intention of ethnic cleansing, genocide and freeing ISIS prisoners.

The Kurdish people just can't win. Every major global power uses them when it suits their agenda, and then they feed them to the wolves.

The US won't stand up for the Kurds. The Syrian Government won't stand up for them, and neither will Iran or Russia. That is why every single person with a heart reading this must raise their voice now!

There's an old Kurdish saying that goes:

"NO FRIENDS BUT THE MOUNTAINS"

Please show our Kurdish brothers and sisters that isn't true. Do everything you can. I beg you.

#RiseUp4Rojava