Provisional Press Office of the Russian Anarchist
Appearances
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provisional press office of the Russian anarchist. And we wanted to share a bit about the situation ongoing here in northeastern Syria. Because, as you probably know, the regime has fallen. And Bashar al-Assad left the country on the 8th of December after a big offensive that started from Idlib that took over quite soon, quite fast. The
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We wanted to explain how is the situation right now on the ground and also give some insight on the situation of northern Syria and what the media is covering of the different events and situations Right now, two main conflicts ongoing, military conflicts. One is widely reported, the other not so much.
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We are talking about the war that HTS, or the offensive that HTS launched against the Syrian Arab Army, and the other is the offensive that the SNA and Turkish proxy forces that write under the name of Ex-Syrian Nationalists for this liberation movement leading the war against the Islamic State and establishing this autonomous administration.
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So let's go shortly to the first conflict, this offensive of HTS or the Haifa Free al-Sham, that it's an Islamist group, direct heritage of al-Nusra, that was the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, that has been governing On the 27th of November, they launched this big offensive that led to the collapse of the regime. We could reflect deeply about the reasons.
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Now, on one side, the Syrian army was exhausted after years of war here in Syria, but especially their main allies and supporters were also in a bad situation. been a war in Ukraine for two years almost. Iran recently had been also engaged in supporting their militias in the conflicts against Israel after the virtual occupation that Israel started on Gaza a year ago.
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So these two conflicts create a situation that both as they did in the past. And this led also to the collapse of the front lines of the Sierra La Parma, allowing the offensive of HTS to overrun very fast the defenses in the city of Aleppo and also taking control of the city of Hama. for a long time to start also taking action in southern Syria, in the regions of Suez and Dara and Quneita.
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There was also an autonomous military operation room that started coordinated insurgents against the regime. This sparked the collapse of the regime. A lot of soldiers were defecting their positions offensive took Damascus.
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This was an offensive that was really not very bloody in the sense of like a lot of the Syrian army soldiers were just leaving their positions and running away and the offensive was able to advance very fast, very easily. Right now this offensive led to the transition that we are seeing in Damascus
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public speeches and declaring the triumph of the revolution, trying to harvest the revolutionary spirit of 2011 for their own benefit. And they imposed or composed a transitional government that is formed exclusively of our interview right now just mentioned that their authoritarian government in Egypt has been also really criticized by local population organizing protests against it.
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Right now, running this interim government, they are already making proposals for morality, police, Islamic courts. So, I don't know how much guide to understand what could be happening in Syria if HDS takes control of the state as it seems to be happening. So this is one of the conflicts ongoing that is widely reported. The only one maybe is not so much reported.
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We see how the Turkish state has been for a long time for more than 40 years and the last chapter of this started in coordination with this offensive of HDS where the proxy forces started to attack mainly the region of Tahrifat from Afrin were living.
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Afrin was a region that was already occupied by Turkey in 2018, and a lot of the people from the city were displaced and living in refugee camps in the region that already had to leave their homes more than five years ago, 2018. Yeah. So forcing them to flee once again. A lot of these people was trapped in a caravan that suffered brutal raids, attacks, kidnapping, ransoms.
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It has been a really terrible experience. the offensive of these Turkish proxy forces, and most of them are now arriving to Tabqa and to Raqqa, to the regions of the self-administration, where they are finding, where they can find shelter.
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And for those willing to help, we can mention that Heva Sur is the humanitarian organization, one of the biggest humanitarian organizations working in northern Syria, and has been
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So those willing to support economically in this humanitarian crisis that we are experiencing, they can easily find the website and the bank account of Heva Sur to donate to them to support all these people that once again lost their homes. But the offensive didn't stop on Jaffa. And this was a really heavy clash.
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It was a really serious military conflict that has been totally supported by Turkish artillery and air even airplanes that of course are like nature air force had been bombing positions of the syrian democratic forces allowing these different islamic groups that are part of this coalition of the sma these turkish proxy forces to control of the city at the moment there is already several
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started yesterday against the occupation because these groups that occupy the city are looting and even killing local population in a really terrible situation that is experiencing the local people living in Malmich. And they are willing to personnel of the Turkish proxy forces gathering on the bridge that connects the divisions of Man Beach and Kobani and all across the Erfurtage River.
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So this war is not so reported, but it's been really and maybe also talk a bit about the work that we have been doing on the ground. We need to remark that this offensive over Manbij and now this stretch on Kobane have not been the only attacks that the Turkish army and the Russian forces are doing all around the street that they occupied in 2018 and 2017.
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are part of this Turkish-Portuguese coalition, and they have been intensively bombing the areas and their surroundings. And there have been quiet, widespread rumors of these Islamist groups gathering forces to continue their attacks on the South administration of northern Syria and their war against the Syrian Democratic Forces. democratic forces in case of a new invasion is happening.
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Right now the bombings are hitting different areas and it has been really This has been also bringing a lot of motivation to continue the resistance on the ground. Right now, this situation of instability and political transition is still playing in ways that are difficult to predict. countries don't expect to run that it's based on the principles of self-defense.
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Maybe to give a bit of context also of what we have been doing here for several years that our organization has been operating in northern Syria, as anarchists we can
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socialism and social ecology, like thinkers like Murat Bucin, have been a big inspiration for Abdul Razan, the leader of the Kurdish liberation movement, that has been proposing this political frame called democratic conformism, where especially with the principles of modern liberation, social ecology and
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Autonomy in the different regions has been also a very important element to develop the project, especially during the war against the Islamic State. As soon as the different territories were liberated, there was a big emphasis on creating local councils, civilian and military councils both,
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the extraordinary learning process, being part of a revolution, living day to day the developments that are happening here and saying, well, what does it mean to make a revolution? Because it's something that's
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but we saw how it has been finally in Syria where this movement found the space to put in practice these ideas and to develop the revolutionary society that has been theorized for a long time. So even if we cannot say that Rojava is an anarchist region, but we can say how anarchist principles inspired the project and that it's been developed here and implemented. This is really...
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a society with principles of libertarian socialism. It is especially complicated here because of external reasons, like the situation of the embargo, the constant threat of the Turkish army. And this is something that for sure we can point out as like, well, it's very difficult to make a revolution with these factors. But this is also a lesson that making a revolution with
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society or to make a reflection from the reflections. all the different elements that we see. And of course, the military conflict that is ongoing, it can seem maybe sometimes far away, not for comrades in Western countries, but I think it's important to remember that revolution and war have been always two sides of the same coin.
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And it's in these moments of instability of war where the logic and the Because we can also see it now in other times, in other moments, or even in other places nowadays. What is happening, for example, in Myanmar, what is happening in different areas where the logic of the national state is in question, creates instability, creates a situation where different actors will push to take control.
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And we know and we have nice force that is able to react to that situation because authoritarian and hierarchic military structures are quite fast to react. We as anarchists, we need time to organize horizontally because our structures function, they function
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are made possible for the revolutionary movement to put their cards on the table, to organize together with the people, and to defend their people and their communities, building this revolutionary process that nowadays so many people have been taking inspiration from. not so quiet. Sorry, we have been quiet some hours.
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We've had several weeks that have been extremely challenging with a really few hours of sleep. But I hope not so understandable. I'm always welcoming new questions and hoping we can answer and share more perspective. We have been writing some statements and we are also trying to answer