Over a hundred thousand people from Northern and Eastern Syria came together in a protest in front of the Coalition base in Kobanê against the dirty negotiations between the US and Turkey. Despite the bad weather, tens of thousands left their various provinces in the morning to come together in Kobanê.

The crowd, made up of Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Syriacs, Armenians, Turkmens and Circassians from Kobanê, Manbij, Raqqa, Tabqa, Sirrin, Gire Spi and Ayn Isa, frequently chanted “Bijî Berxwedana Gelan”, “Em planên qirêj qebûl nakin”, “Me berxwe da, emê berxwe bidin”, “Syrian peoples are one, Turkish state is an invader”, “Şehîd namirin”, “Bijî Berxwedana Efrînê”, “Bijî berxwedana YPG'ê”, “Bijî Berxwedana YPJ'ê”, “Bijî Berxwedana QSD'ê” and “Bijî Berxwedana Gelan”.

A 7 person delegation made up of Kurds, Arabs, Turkmens and other peoples met with the US and Coalition officials in the base before the statement. The delegation submitted a letter of their demands to the officials to be relayed to the US government and the Coalition. Sirin Osman from the Kobanê Canton Administration and Hemdan El Ebid from the Euphrates Regional Coordination gave speeches in the protest.

“WE MARCH WITH OUR OWN STRENGTH”

Sirin Osman said the peoples of the region have marched on with their own strength since day one of the revolution and that they will continue: “We will never accept the dirty negotiations over us. We don’t accept the Turkish state invasion. This is our promise to our martyrs. Nobody should make the mistaken calculations.”

“WHOEVER COMES UP AGAINST US”

Hemdan El Ebid said Northern and Eastern Syria has become the most stable region in the Middle East due to the joint struggle of the region’s peoples and that millions of people have made the region their home. Ebid called on the coalition forces to avoid acts that would harm this oasis of stability and added: “We have paid a great price to ensure peace in this region. Now we are facing a threat of invasion. We do not accept that. These steps will only bring pain and suffering for the peoples of the region. We as the people will resist, whoever comes up against us. We do not want war. But we also do not accept the invasion.”

“THEY BECOME COMPLICIT IN TURKISH STATE CRIMES”

The prepared text was handed out to journalists after the speeches. The text stresses that the Turkish state has always harbored animosity against Kurdish, Arab, Assyrian, Syriac, Armenian, Turkmen and Circassian peoples in Northern Syria and that the Turkish state wants to implement the Afrin scenario they developed together with Russia in all of Northern Syria.

The text also says the peoples of the region have paid a great price to stand against ISIS tyranny and have over ten thousand martyrs: “And now, a NATO member, the Turkish state is threatening our region. This puts even further weight on the shoulders of coalition member states. But tellingly, they are silent. We do not think this silence is legitimate. This is another instance of the silence during the invasion of Afrin, which means complicity in Turkish state crimes.”

DEMANDS

The statement ends with saying that the US withdrawing forces without any prior notice would create a reaction among the peoples of the region, and lists the following demands from the international public: “We are calling on the US and the Coalition Forces to break their silence so they don’t become complicit in the Turkish state’s crimes, and to close of all Northern Syrian air space to Turkish jets. We are also calling on the United Nations to send the Peace Force to the region against Turkish state attacks.”