Thousands of people from various towns in north-eastern Syria marched on Sunday under the slogan "Your silence is killing us!" in front of the international anti-ISIS coalition's troop base in Hesekê. They protested against the ignorance and inaction of the international community in the face of the Turkish state's war of attrition in the areas of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).

The demonstration was called by the "Council of Peace Mothers" in the canton of Hesekê, and participants came from Dirbêsiyê, Til Temir, Hol and Shaddadi, among other places. Political party leaders and civil society organisations were also present.

The march started from the village of Tiwana (Al-Tweinah), northwest of Hesekê city. On front banners and signs, in addition to the main slogan "Your silence is killing us!" "Your ignorance opens the way to genocide", "Don't shirk responsibility" and "Silence to the occupation means complicity". Kurdish resistance songs rang out from loudspeakers, and there was loud applause and supportive slogans for the resistance of the guerrillas in Southern Kurdistan (Northern Iraq) affected by banned chemical weapons attacks by Turkey.

ABDULLAH: SILENCE MEANS CONSENT AND COMPLICITY

In front of the base of the international coalition, the demonstration culminated in a rally. Samar Abdullah, co-chair of the Hesekê Cantonal Council, gave a combative speech: "The war of the Turkish state and its Islamist allies against our regions is clearly against international law. Yet the international community and actors on the Syria issue remain silent on these attacks. We interpret the lack of response as approval and aiding and abetting a blatant violation of universal human rights."

“TURKEY’S GOAL IS TO REVIVE ISIS”

“These are war crimes and crimes against humanity" that northern and eastern Syria have been facing for years. Despite extensive knowledge about this, there is a deafening silence internationally. There is no effort to stop and punish the atrocities of the Turkish jihadist war machine. It seems as if impunity applies to our attackers - despite murders, rapes, looting and displacements. It is this carte blanche for the Turkish aggressor that has led to the deaths of innocent people on an almost daily basis. We also explicitly warn the coalition against the Turkish state's efforts to raise an ISIS caliphate in the areas of northern and eastern Syria. The Turkish regime's strategic goal was and is to revive ISIS terror against AANES and its democratic and multi-ethnic philosophy that governs the region," Abdullah said.

The demonstration ended with Samar Abdullah's call to expand the resistance against war and occupation.