Call to Defend Rojava from Turkish attack - An Open Letter
A home in Afrin, March 31, 2018 Nazeer al-Khatib/AFP/Getty Images
When Raqqa fell in
2017, after a long siege by the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), it was generally thought
that ISIS was defeated, save for some mopping up. But in January of this year,
Turkey invaded Afrin one of three cantons in Rojava, also called the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria. This meant that
scores of SDF fighters had to leave the battle against ISIS in order to defend their homes, families, and neighbors in Afrin.
After
extensive air strikes, the city of Afrin fell on March 18 confronting the
already troubled region with yet another humanitarian crisis, as thousands fled
to escape the Turkish army and its Syrian National Army allies (which include
jihadist rebel groups and some fighters who are either openly aligned with
al-Qaeda or even recent members of ISIS). Many of those who fled
Afrin are now sleeping in open fields or in tent cities, lacking the most
elementary necessities. Those who remain have been subjected to the same kind
of ethnic discrimination, looting, and sexual violence that ISIS perpetrated
against the Yazidis in Iraq. At least fifteen girls have been reported as having been
abducted, and their families fear they are being held as sex slaves.
We, the undersigned,
are launching the Emergency Committee for Rojava as part of a global campaign
to draw attention to this new crisis and to Afrin’s call for support.
The Turkish attack on
Afrin was entirely unprovoked. In fact, Afrin was so peaceful for most of the
Syrian war that it became a safe haven for tens of thousands of refugees - some of
whom are now refugees for a second time. In the cantons they controlled, the
Kurdish-led forces had established an oasis, unique in Syria, of local self-government, women’s rights, and secular rule. Yet the Turkish
government cynically claims that it is threatened by Rojava because the people
leading it - who have been the US’s leading allies in the fight against ISIS in
Syria - are “terrorists.”
While the attack on
Afrin is a violation of international law comparable to those of the Assad
government, the Trump administration has made only feeble protests against
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s depredations. By accepting Turkey’s attack,
the US has become complicit in Erdoğan’s
ethnic cleansing plan to expel the Kurds once and for all from a part of Syria
where they have lived for centuries, and to eradicate the democratic experiment developing in
Rojava.
Encouraged by the lack
of response from the US, Erdoğan is threatening to take his military campaign
deeper into Syria, to Manbij, and even into Iraqi Kurdistan. It is clear that
this campaign is already benefiting ISIS in multiple ways. To stop this
madness, Turkey must be isolated economically, diplomatically, and militarily
until it withdraws its troops and its proxy militias from Kurdish Syria. In the
long run, there can be no peace in the region until Turkey is willing to reopen
negotiations with its own Kurds and grant all its citizens democratic rights,
including freedom of expression and the right to form political parties and win
elections without reprisals.
The Emergency
Committee for Rojava is calling on the US government to:
• impose economic and
political sanctions on Turkey’s leadership;
• embargo sales and delivery of weapons from NATO countries to Turkey;
• insist upon Rojava’s representation in Syrian peace negotiations;
• continue military support for the SDF.
• embargo sales and delivery of weapons from NATO countries to Turkey;
• insist upon Rojava’s representation in Syrian peace negotiations;
• continue military support for the SDF.
Please join us
as signatories and
supporters in our call for the US and its allies to end their tacit
acquiescence in Turkey’s military adventure and restore peace and safety to the
people of Rojava. And visit our website, DefendRojava.org to
see other supporters, sign up for more information, and help organize an
ongoing effort to support Rojava by spreading the word on your campus and in
your community.
Emergency Committee
for Rojava
Debbie Bookchin,
journalist, co-editor of The Next Revolution: Popular Assemblies and
the Promise of Direct Democracy
Charlotte Bunch, Distinguished Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, Rutgers University
Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor of Comparative Literature, UC Berkeley
Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor & Professor of Linguistics Emeritus, MIT
Bill Fletcher Jr., writer, former director of Trans-Africa Forum
Todd Gitlin, Professor of Journalism and Sociology, Columbia University
David Graeber, Professor of Anthropology, London School of Economics
Michael Hardt, Professor of Literature, Duke University
David Harvey, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography, CUNY
Sally Haslanger, Ford Professor of Philosophy and Women’s and Gender Studies, MIT
Robert Hockett, Edward Cornell Professor of Law, Cornell University
Chad Kautzer, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Lehigh University
Anna-Sara Malmgren, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Stanford University
Edress Othman, physician, Director of Afrin Fund, board member of New England Kurdish Association
Marina Sitrin, Assistant Professor of Sociology, SUNY Binghampton
Gloria Steinem, feminist writer, journalist, and activist, co-founder of Ms. Magazine
Asta Kristjana Sveinsdottir, Associate Professor of Philosophy, San Francisco State University
Latif Tas, Assistant Professor at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University
Meredith Tax, writer and activist, author of A Road Unforeseen: Women Fight the Islamic State
Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University
Charlotte Bunch, Distinguished Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, Rutgers University
Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor of Comparative Literature, UC Berkeley
Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor & Professor of Linguistics Emeritus, MIT
Bill Fletcher Jr., writer, former director of Trans-Africa Forum
Todd Gitlin, Professor of Journalism and Sociology, Columbia University
David Graeber, Professor of Anthropology, London School of Economics
Michael Hardt, Professor of Literature, Duke University
David Harvey, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography, CUNY
Sally Haslanger, Ford Professor of Philosophy and Women’s and Gender Studies, MIT
Robert Hockett, Edward Cornell Professor of Law, Cornell University
Chad Kautzer, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Lehigh University
Anna-Sara Malmgren, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Stanford University
Edress Othman, physician, Director of Afrin Fund, board member of New England Kurdish Association
Marina Sitrin, Assistant Professor of Sociology, SUNY Binghampton
Gloria Steinem, feminist writer, journalist, and activist, co-founder of Ms. Magazine
Asta Kristjana Sveinsdottir, Associate Professor of Philosophy, San Francisco State University
Latif Tas, Assistant Professor at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University
Meredith Tax, writer and activist, author of A Road Unforeseen: Women Fight the Islamic State
Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University
April 23, 2018, 1:18
pm
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