Solidarity with all democratic forces in Syria – Down with Erdogan and al-Sharaa
A statement by the International Committee of the FAU
Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Syria has been in turmoil. After high hopes for a democratic awakening in Syria, the country has once again sunk into violence and oppression in recent days and weeks – now at the hands of former al-Qaeda fighter Ahmed al-Sharaa, who is also courted and financed in Germany. We call on all workers in Germany to show solidarity and take to the streets together to defend the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria and all other democratic opposition forces in Syria, and to protest against the increasingly aggressive foreign policy of NATO countries.
The world-famous city of Kobanê is once again surrounded by Islamist fighters and cut off from electricity and drinking water supplies. In 2014, the fighters of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria resisted the so-called Islamic State here, thereby initiating its demise. Celebrated by the world at the time, the inhabitants of Kobanê are now left alone, with the world looking away. Christians, Druze, Alevis, and especially the feminist and democratic opposition in the country are facing a similar fate. The new Islamist regime is consolidating its power and burying any hope of continuing Syria’s struggle for democracy since 2011.
The Western world remains silent on this issue. The Islamist militias of the new government, which are once again invading Kurdish areas, raping and beheading people, were in many cases personally trained, armed, and financed by NATO member Turkey. Turkey itself has also repeatedly attacked the autonomous self-government, often with the help of German weapons such as the Leopard II tank, and murdered many thousands of people.
Our thoughts, our tears, our anger are with the many people who are currently continuing to fight in Syria for women’s rights, for a minimum of democracy, for human rights, and for bare survival. Many members of our international trade union have been there themselves in recent years, as doctors and aid workers. Some stayed there, struck down by the bullets of the self-proclaimed Islamic State or by the bombs of NATO member Turkey.
On January 5, a meeting took place in Paris between representatives of the so-called transitional government, Turkey, Israel, and Western states. The goal: to agree on a division of Syria. Israel would be allowed to occupy the southern parts and Turkey would retain influence in the northern areas. After supporting the Kurds in their fight against IS since 2014, the US-led coalition is now abandoning all cooperation and leaving the autonomous regions to fend for themselves. These regions not only repelled IS at great cost, but have also kept the real danger of its resurgence at bay ever since.
Syria is one example among many that the “values of the West” are nothing more than lies and war propaganda. The commitment to democracy ends at the latest at the point of citizenship and the external border. Or, as Friedrich Merz recently quoted Canadian President Mark Carney in Davos: “We must no longer rely only on the power of our values. We must also recognize the value of our power.” In the US, the autocrat Trump is now also using military occupation, targeted killings, and mass deportations domestically. In NATO member Turkey, this has been the norm for over 20 years. After “the West” armed Islamist militias during the Cold War to bring the Soviet Union to its knees in Afghanistan, it suffocated the entire region in bloodshed in the fight against Islamism, only to bring Islamists back to power today.
Western countries have never been concerned with democracy, women’s rights, or minority rights. The West has no values except one: to bomb its way clear for capital. Where it supports democracies, this happens by chance. Even if the heads of state puff themselves up in comparison with China’s system, after the atrocities of October 7, 2023, or the Russian dictator’s invasion of Ukraine: they don’t care about morals or convictions, they only care about power-politics. When NATO’s enemies invade a country, it is a war of aggression contrary to international law; when NATO invades, it is justified security interests. When Israel’s enemies murder and rape, it justifies one of the greatest mass murders of the 21st century; when Turkey’s friends rape and murder, we send millions of euros, tanks, and ammunition.
It is not a question of whether autonomous self-government is a perfect democracy. It is enough that people there are fighting for democracy, women’s rights, and ecology—and have been risking their lives for this every day for 15 years. And when we call on you to protest, we know that protest alone does not change anything. We must organize, we must be able to strike and sabotage the war machine. We must be able to prevent profit from being made from the corpses of our friends and comrades. But if we no longer even feel outrage, if we no longer even protest, if we no longer take to the streets to say “No!” to the silence of the media and the lies of politicians—then we have already lost. All of us.
Down with all tyrants, Jin, Jiyan, Azadî!
