Stop the war against humanity in northern and eastern Syria. Stop the Turkish war and its occupation policies.

We, the undersigned, express our solidarity with the Kurdish movement, comprised of children, youth, women, people of diverse identities, and the Kurdish people, who are fighting for their right to autonomy and self-determination. Through our personal and collective voices, we wish to make known to the world what is happening in that territory right now.

Current situation

Since October 4, 2023, Turkish army forces have been systematically bombing villages, towns and infrastructure in the districts of Derik, Rimelan, Tirbesipi, Qamishlo, Amude, Hasake, Til Temir, Dirbesi, Manbij, Ain Issa, Kobane, Tal Rifat, Shehba, Shera and Sherawa, covering a geographical area approximately 900 km long and 52 km wide of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) in Kurdistan.

Civilian settlements, vehicles, power plants, gas stations, water resources and energy supplies, oil fields, health centers and hospitals—including two hospitals for COVID-19 treatment—cement factories, farmland, granaries, and food processing plants, as well as the M4 highway and the areas surrounding refugee camps in the Hasakah, Derik, Sheba, and Sherawa regions, home to at least 10,000 internally displaced persons, have been targeted by Turkish fighter jets, armed drones (UAVs), artillery, and mortar fire. These attacks have been carried out from Turkish military bases on Turkish territory, as well as from areas in northern Syria occupied since 2016 by previous Turkish invasions, such as Jerablus, Afrin, Gire Sipi, and Serekaniye.

During the first three days of the attacks, at least 16 people were killed and dozens wounded. Nearly two million people have been left without electricity, insufficient energy and water supplies, and access to healthcare. The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria announced in a statement that bombings targeting electrical infrastructure alone have so far caused $56 million in material losses.

We are facing a new dimension of Turkey's war of invasion, whose objective is to destroy, occupy, and ethnically cleanse more areas of northern Syria. The latest attacks, announced by the Turkish government, aim to eliminate "all infrastructure, superstructure, and energy facilities" to destroy all life-support systems in northern and eastern Syria and depopulate the region. The target is the lives and security of more than six million people of diverse cultures and beliefs—including Kurds, Arabs, Syrians, Circassians, Turkmen, Yazidis, Christians, Muslims, and others—who live together on shared lands and meet their basic needs within the framework of democratic autonomy. Despite the ongoing airstrikes, ten thousand residents of the targeted cities and regions have taken to the streets to condemn the attacks and declare their determination to continue their collective resistance against the war and occupation, for a life of dignity, peace, and freedom.

The latest Turkish drone strike adds to the systematic drone warfare, airstrikes, and military operations carried out by Turkish forces in Kurdish regions of Syria and Iraq. Since 2020, the lives of community workers, journalists, politicians, members of the Autonomous Administration, the women's movement, and self-defense forces have been targeted in deliberate attacks. Between January 2022 and September 2023 alone, 163 people were killed and 28 were seriously injured in 190 Turkish drone strikes. Among the dead were dozens of members of the YPG-YPJ and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), units and forces that have fought against the Islamic State to defend humanity. Given the above, it does not appear to be a coincidence that the Turkish army began its massive air strike operation at the exact moment when the Syrian Democratic Forces were carrying out large-scale operations to prevent the resurgence of the Islamic State.

Although all these attacks by the Turkish army on Syrian territory constitute clear violations of international law and war crimes, and are therefore contributing to the worsening humanitarian crisis in Syria and throughout the Middle East, neither the UN nor other international bodies, states, or forces have yet adequately condemned these crimes or taken effective measures to put an end to them.

Therefore, we call upon the international community and all relevant bodies to take urgent measures to prevent further crimes against humanity and to put an end to Turkey's policies of war and occupation.

We urgently call upon all sensitive and committed people of the world to:

• Countering Turkey's disinformation policies and censorship
  media providing and disseminating information from
  from sources within the target region itself. 

We demand that international organizations and governments:

• Establish a no-fly zone for the Turkish air force,
  including armed and unarmed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs),
  over Syrian and Iraqi airspace. 

From different parts of the world we demand that:

• The Turkish government must end its military attacks, occupation policies, and
  systematic killings of women's rights defenders and
  People living anywhere in Kurdistan, especially in what
  with respect to the territories of northern and eastern Syria and northern Iraq.
• End Türkiye's occupation and genocidal practices in territories
  Syrians such as in the regions of Jerablus, Afrin, Gire Sipi and Serekaniye. 
• Prosecution of war crimes and crimes against humanity - including the
  genocide and femicide - committed by Erdogan and the AKP government, of
  in accordance with international law.

The world's major powers do not look favorably upon the autonomy of the Kurdish people because it threatens their interests and ways of exercising power. These global powers do not want the example of millions of Kurdish people to spread—people who gather in more than four thousand assemblies to decide the course of their lives; where women exercise full political, economic, and social rights; where the people defend themselves with weapons; where justice is administered by popular committees; where the means of production are collectively owned; where no one renounces their faith, language, beliefs, or customs, but rather they live together, accepting their differences and organizing themselves based on them.

In other words, world powers (governments, nation-states, corporations, de facto powers) cannot respect, allow to live and flourish a world like the Kurdish one, standing in struggle where many worlds fit.

9th October 2023
CLACSO Working Group
Bodies, territories, resistances
and people, groups, organizations around the world

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This text expresses the position of the aforementioned Working Group and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.