#SaveAfrin
Party Co-Chairpersons of the DIE LINKE Katja Kipping and Bernd Riexinger and the Co-Chairpersons of the parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Sahra Wagenknecht und Dietmar Bartsch declare:
This new war of the Erdogan-regime against the Kurds in Syria is a crime. Let us raise our voice for the people in Afrin in Northern Syria!
Let us protest together with the Kurds and all democrats against this attack of the Turkish army!
The women and men of the Kurdish YPG are a stronghold against IS. They defeated the jihadist terror in Kobane and they freed the Syrian city of Raqqa from the fundamentalist Caliphate. However, the islamist autocrat Erdogan has not forgiven the Kurdish people in Syria for their experiments with democratic self-administration or the grant of equality to women. Therefore he leads a war of aggression against Afrin. In his war speeches Erdogan openly announced that he intends to expel all Kurds from Afrin with around one million people living in the region. The Kurdish enclave of Afrin has not been afflicted by war until now and gives shelter to hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees. With the Turkish invasion many civilian casualties are to be feared.
This war - against international law - of the NATO-ally Turkey together with islamist terror militias under the flag of the FSA is a shame. It is a shame, that the great powers and the regional powers have forgotten the people of Afrin, and it is a shame, that the German government is still courting the Turkish tyrant, who in his language and action lost any measure. German Leopard-2 tanks are being used in Afrin. To Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel one thing must be clear: when Erdogan destroys the Kurdish enclave in Afrin, a new war in Syria will follow and with it many humanitarian crimes.
We demand the immediate stop of all German arms exports into Turkey!
We demand the dissolution of all plans to modernize Turkish tanks with Rheinmetall.
We demand from the government to clearly and unmistakably condemn this war, and to stop any kind of financial assistance to Turkey also within the NATO-structures.
We demand the immediate withdrawal of the Turkish army and all her islamist militias.
Syria is in need of peace and democracy. The Kurds in Syria need our recognition and solidarity today.
We call on all members of DIE LINKE, to take part in peaceful demonstrations for Afrin or set their own signs of solidarity. Every vote counts!