#Paris #Kobane #Venice - all we need is Freedom and Peace

20151110 "Soffio Associazione culturale Armonia" no. 52 11/15 - p. 40

"Anyone searching for a sliver of light in the darkness of the Syrian catastrophe has no better place to go than the country’s northeast. There some 2.2 million Kurds have created a quasi state that is astonishingly safe—and strangely unknown abroad." 

Jonathan Steele starts with these lines his article The Syrian Kurds Are Winning! link. 

Thanks to the newsletter of The New York Review of Books, which I received on November 13th at 23.30 Italian (and French) time, I read Steele's article at the same time as I was reading the live news from Paris: it came to my mind that - in this time when we feel a great need of Freedom and we look for ways to Peace - the Syrian Kurdish Amazons' example is what we all need, as the example of a people who have being fighting Isis with great dignity to defend their homes and their way of living: to say it in one word, their Freedom. And they are winning!

Kurds' fight for self-defence is also a demonstration of the complexity of religious beliefs in Middle East. As Steele points out, "Syrian Kurds put greater store on national identity than organized religion. Most Kurdish clerics are Sufis of the Sunni branch of Islam and, in contrast to the Syrian Arab opposition to Assad, none of the dozen Kurdish political parties in Syria is Islamist".

What matters most to me is that Syrian Kurds, Kurdish Amazons - unlike many Western countries - are not trying to impose their way of living to people who do not share it: their fight is only aiming to self defence, not to conquer. In a neologism, resilience link; in a word our grandmothers and grandfathers used, resistance link. As I wrote above, Freedom and Peace, two words that in my vision go necessarily together.


MORE LINKS:

France24 posted a Video: A rare look inside the Kurdish rebel movement (sic!) link 

@PeterClifford1 link tweets frequent updates on #Syria #Rojava #Iraq link

L'Espresso, Ecco chi finanzia il Califfato link

Famiglia Cristiana.it Francia: almeno smettiamola con le chiacchiere link

About the relationship between Turkish goverment and Isis: The love affair between ISIS and the Turkish JDP (AKP). The entire story and evidence: link to the full article.

About the US relations with the starting of Isis, Hillary Clinton in Iran Italian Radio: link

WHAT KURDS WRITE:

On November 15th, the Facebook page Save Kobane link posted an invitation: 
"While the world leaders meet in Antalya to discuss how to fight ISIS, there is a people who are already defeating ISIS. Actions speak louder than words, so believe in what you see, and forget what you hear" link.

Another post by Save Kobane states:
"The single greatest factor allowing ISIS to hold Raqqa is the dispute between US and Turkey over whether the Kurds can take Jarablus or not. Without Jarablus, IS are done in Syria. The only reason they hold it is that Turkey won't let the Kurds take it, which they easily can. Turkey's fantasy safe zone and fear of the PKK/YPG, is, essentially, the greatest stumbling block to the fall of Raqqa."
- Aris Roussinos

link

Save Kobane posted also a link to "An excellent piece on the Kurds and the Western reluctance to support their fight against ISIS": link to the full article, After Paris: Victory to the Kurds by Brendan O'Neill.

Save Kobane published more news of victory in the last few hours: 

"Tonight they are rejoicing their victory on this cold night, YPG fighters within SDF remain ready for the next fight.

After a joint campaign conducted against ISIS during the last 2 weeks, SDF today declared success for Phase I of Operation Liberate Hawl. Over 1300 sq kilometers have been cleared of ISIS terrorists. SDF (Kurdish YPG coalition with Assyrian, Arab and Turkmen forces), established in late October 2015, coordinated efforts to remove terrorists from southern Hasakah. 224 miles, including the town Hawl and 196 villages along ISIS' strategic supply routes have been fully secured. 490 ISIS terrorists have been killed during this operation. 33 SDF fighters fell martyr in the operation, 53 comrades have been wounded in action.

#YPG #SDF #Rojava #Syria #Hawl

link

Pic posted by Facebook page Save Kobane on November 17th, 2015
link

LOVE & HAPPINESS - @RoniRan2

Life tought me to always listen to my instinct, to my feelings, even when I consider complicated international matters. This is very important to me: I always consider my personal relations with people.

Whenever I think of Syrian Kurds, I think of @RoniRan2 link who fought in Kobane. I got in touch with her via Twitter in October 2014: she sent me messages of Love and Hope, inviting me to Happiness. I wrote a poem Message of Love from Kobane link.

The Italian version of that poem, Messaggio d'Amore da Kobane link was published on November 10th, 2015 - in Soffio Associazione culturale Armonia no. 52 11/15 together with "Why are not happy?" #Kobane #Venezia link from a letter I wrote to a friend on January 10th, 2015 in the days following the attack to Charlie Hebdo: I finally translated that text "Why are not happy?" @RoniRan2 - #Kobane #Venice link.

20151110 "Soffio Associazione culturale Armonia" no. 52 11/15 - p. 41