Ukrainian anti-authoritarians support Kurdish struggle
We just got the message on our email from the anti-authoritarian activists who had a symbolic solidarity action in front of the Turkey embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine. That’s their message:
We stands with the people of Southern and Western Kurdistan in their resistance against the invasion by the fascist regime of Turkey. As anti-fascists, internationalists, and as people of a colonized nation resisting invasion ourselves, we view it as imperative to explicitly declare our solidarity with all oppressed people of the world. The people of Kurdistan’s struggle for democratic autonomy and self-determination have never been allowed a single moment of peaceful development, instead having been fought tooth and nail by occupation, barbarity, and ethnic cleansing by their state oppressors (namely: Turkey and their collaborators in the KDP with the blessing of international “great powers” such as the United States and Russia). So long as Turkey continues to attempt to colonize the people of Southern Kurdistan and smash any attempts at autonomy with genocide and occupation, armed resistance can be the only outcome. Furthermore, we believe that Turkey’s ongoing relentless aggression against the people whom they have so long colonized makes their position as a sort of arbiter of peace between Russia and Ukraine hypocritical and illegitimate.
The Turkish regime has long tried to eliminate Kurdish identity by forced relocation, forced settlement of non-Kurdish peoples into historically Kurdish lands, the erasure and outlawing of Kurdish language and identity itself, and labeling them as “Mountain Turks”. Turkey has stooped so low to halt the democratic autonomy of Kurds in Southern and Western Kurdistan as to directly collaborate with the barbaric Islamic State in the forms of both economic and military support as well as allowing Turkey to act as a safe passage for its members to and from Syria. Any attempts at peace in this decades long war have been met only by jails and death. Turkey has persistently chosen to discard peace into the waste bin of history, and instead opt to destroy the defenders of Kurdish autonomy by force. When will they learn that every time they destroy a village in Southern Kurdistan in attempt to eliminate one alleged guerrilla, they create several more in the wake of their destruction by aggravating frustration over their condemnable acts and emboldening resistance against them?
At the same time, the international community has remained disturbingly silent on this issue, just as they always have with every attack against the Kurdish people. The world looked away during the fascist slaughter of Sere Kaniye and of Efrin in Western Kurdistan. The international community only selfishly came to the aid of Kurdish resistance when it was convenient to them in fighting other “great powers” or regional enemies (such as the Iraqi Army, or the Islamic State).
We carry in our hearts tremendous sympathy for the Kurdish people. For centuries the people of Ukraine have undergone periods of russification under both czarist and soviet rule. Ukrainian identity, language, culture, and the inalienable right to autonomy have been frustrated by colonial occupiers and collaborative state forces within Ukraine. Worse yet, they have undergone mass starvation and genocide at the hands of the ruling Russian state. Like Kurds were labeled “Mountain Turks,” Ukrainians were labeled “Little Russians.” The Russian state has characterized revitalization of Ukrainian language and culture as eradication, humiliation, and oppression of Ukraine’s Russian speaking/ethnically Russian population. This is a flagrant and hypocritical attempt by the invader to accuse the invaded of that which they are guilty. In many parts of Ukraine Russian language and culture is predominant, and exists in harmony with their Ukrainian counterparts. Furthermore, we are proud to live, work with, and fight alongside our Russian and Belarus comrades in resistance to imperialism and in preparation for a brighter future.
We wish to capture this historical moment and extend our branches of solidarity to all oppressed and colonized people of the world, and particularly in this moment to the people of invaded Southern Kurdistan. We call on all our comrades to unite as Internationals against Turkish Aggression in Southern and Western Kurdistan, and to take action within the states they reside to frustrate the genocidal machine that is the Turkish regime and its armed forces. We repeat: Turkey is in no position to be an arbitrator of peace. The International Libertarian Left must unite and connect across all borders to defeat all oppressors and build a future free of the “Great Power” model which exists only in perpetual war.
Bijî Kûrdistan!
Berxwedan Jîyanê!
Death to Turkish Fascism!
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