[Reproduced below is a news report that the first (rather smallish) batch of Peshmerga fighters have eventually been allowed, being arm twisted by the US, to pass through Turkey on the way to Kobane; and two analytical reports emanating from the Kurdish resistance in Kobane - the latter one being an "ideological defence" of (demanding and) taking "imperialist" assistance. Also highly relevant, in this context: <http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/10/kurds-blast-obama-for-sitting-back-letting-kobane-fall-to-isis/>, 'Kurds to Obama: Save Kobane ' at <http://rudaw.net/english/world/071020141> and <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/US-deeply-concerned-about-Kobane-Obama/articleshow/44818969.cms>.]
I/III. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/30/first-iraqi-kurdish-fighters-isis-kobani First Iraqi Kurdish fighters enter Isis-besieged Kobani Monitoring group says peshmerga fighters have arrived with heavy weapons, crowning a dramatic turnaround for Syrian town Constanze Letsch in Istanbul and agencies The Guardian, Thursday 30 October 2014 12.10 GMT Peshmerga fighters prepare to cross into the Kobani area through the Turkish border. The first Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters have entered the besieged Syrian town of Kobani through the border crossing with Turkey, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The British-based monitoring group said 10 fighters moved in on Thursday and the others were expected to enter the town, which has been under attack by Islamic State (Isis) for more than a month, "within hours". A convoy of peshmerga fighters had arrived close to the Turkish town of Suruc on Wednesday night, meeting up with others who had flown in earlier in the day. "About 10 members of the Kurdish peshmerga forces entered the town of Ayn al-Arab through the border crossing between the town and Turkish territory," the Observatory said. Ayn al-Arab is the Arabic name for mainly Kurdish Kobani. The Syrian foreign ministry condemned Turkey for allowing foreign fighters to enter Syria, describing the move as "blatant violation" of its sovereignty and a "disgraceful act". The new troops bring heavy weapons, the main request of the Kurdish militia who have kept their well-armed enemies at bay with a combination of assault rifles and occasional US air strikes. ***They travelled through Turkey after a US lobbying campaign broke down Ankara's opposition to allowing military convoys into Kobani.*** [Emphasis added.] "The force is equipped with heavy guns including mortars, canons, rocket launchers, etc," said Safeen Dizayee, spokesman for the Iraqi Kurdistan regional government, on Thursday. The troops were sent, he added, as a "moral, political and nationalistic duty". "This force will not engage in frontline combat but will have a support role," he said, adding that Kurdish fighters in the city said they had enough troops, but needed weapons and ammunition. More peshmerga fighters could be sent if needed. The troops' arrival crowns a dramatic turnaround in the fate of Kobani, which just a few weeks ago seemed all but doomed to a painful capitulation, as tens of thousands of refugees fled across the border in panic ahead of a blitzkrieg-style Isis advance. US officials ordered air strikes, then all but washed their hands of the town, with the US secretary of state, John Kerry, saying it was not a strategic objective and a Pentagon spokesman warning that bombs alone could not save it. Kurdish forces' skilful defence of the town led to hope that defeat might not be inevitable, and won time to mobilise support worldwide through reports about Isis atrocities and the heroism of the defenders. II/III. https://rojavareport.wordpress.com/2014/10/23/erdogan-america-helped-kobane-despite-our-objections/ The Rojava Report News from the Revolution in Rojava and Wider Kurdistan Erdoğan: America Helped Kobanê Despite Our Objections Posted on October 23, 2014 by --- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told reporters that America delivered aid to Kobanê despite Turkey's objections, according to an article from DIHA carried in Özgür Gündem. President Erdoğan made the remarks in the course of a joint press conference with Latvian President Andris Berzins. Erdoğan is on an official visit to the country. When asked if Turkey viewed the aid positively, Erdoğan responded by saying: "Did Turkey view this act positively? No it did not. American did this in spite of Turkey.The PYD and PKK are the same.I told this to Obama in our telephone conversation. Right now the PKK leadership is fighting in the ranks of the PYD over there. Therefore the aid which you give to the PYD is going to a terrorist organization." Erdoğan added that the Free Syrian Army (FSA) was the force with which one needed to fight ISIS and that weapons should be given to them. On the subject of the peace process Erdoğan blamed the Kurdish movement for "trying to ruin the process" saying "I believe that all of our people, the whole of our nation are in agreement around the peace process but it will be much stronger if all civil society organizations and political parties support it." III. https://rojavareport.wordpress.com/2014/10/27/is-the-pyd-collaborating-with-imperialism/ The Rojava Report News from the Revolution in Rojava and Wider Kurdistan Is the PYD Collaborating With Imperialism? Posted on October 27, 2014 by - The following piece - "PYD emperyalizmle işbirliği mi yapıyor?" -was written by Rıdvan Turan, the General Secretary of the Socialist Democratic Party (SDP) in Turkey, and confronts allegations made by some on the left that the PYD is 'collaborating' with imperialism. It originally appeared in Özgür Gündem and has been translated into English below. The US airstrikes on ISIS positions around Kobanê and the subsequent delivery of weapons to the PYD has caused a fictitious debate within the left around the question of imperialism. The debate is revolving around whether or not accepting weapons from the United States is the same as collaborating with imperialism. I am of the opinion that this thesis' approach to imperialism is counter to Marxist-Leninism insomuch that ignores any manner of engagement with existing praxis and the current conjuncture of class forces. But the basis of this question also has a dimension that is related to the way Kurdish resistances have been approached historically. It is no secret that among those who make this criticism there is tendency to view the processes around Kurdish nation-building and the struggles in this direction as collaboration with imperialism from a denialism inspired by Kemalism. The directives from the Comintern to support the Kemalist regime against the Kurdish rebellions, which were proclaimed to be 'backwards' and 'feudal,' are well known, as is what the Turkish Communist Party actually did around this question. There are some, both then and now, who have already sized up everyone by employing their "god given" anti-imperialism rubric and who have long since sacrificed the right of self-determination to national chauvinism. They have an easy time proclaiming the Kurds to be collaborating with imperialism while not seeing their own state's collaboration with imperialism. It carries no value that the PKK has for years avoided coming to resemble the KDP, but their acceptance of the delivery of weapons from the United States under the shadow of massacre is collaboration. This rote recitation of the same discourse does not change despite the fact that the characteristics of the system in Kobanê have been determined by a leftist paradigm, and the Kurds remain unable get out from under the accusation of collaboration. What kind of abandonment of reason is this that instead of seeing the success of the Kobanê resistance as a step forward for the revolutionary center forming in the Middle East and of supporting the resistance they joyfulling shout out "look you see - they are collaborating with imperialism"? Is it not necessary that one choke on one's own words when claiming that the PYD is collaborating with imperialism while a people resist - man, woman and child - face to face against gangs which have themselves been produced by imperialism? There is more than two years of cooperation, in both word and deed, between the United States, Turkey and the KDP around the Rojava question. Do not forget that just yesterday US imperialism and Turkish colonialism was pressuring the PYD to become a part of the Free Syrian Army and fight against Assad. Do not forget that they wanted the PYD to join the National Council of Syrian Kurds (ENKS), which is controlled by Barzani, and be rendered powerless; do not forget the border politics nurtured by the alliance between Turkey and Barzani, nor the implementation of an undeclared embargo. Up until the debate about military aid, imperialism had many times attempted to manipulate Rojava through the use of regional powers. Those who are now sounding the alarm about collaboration never once raised their voices against these colonialist/imperialist onslaughts. Why do you think that those who now degrade the acceptance of arms delivered by the United States while under the shadow of a communal massacre as collaboration with imperialism have for years never brought attention to this movement's liberatory and anti-imperialist stance? Let me tell you, because of an unredeemable social chauvinism. Collaboration is not accepting military aid while under the threat of massacre but of entering into imperialist dependency and colonial relations. To claim that the acceptance of weapons has this meaning is to discount the class struggle entirely. The character of such relations are defined not in the "moment" but over the course of a "process." The reverse means to claim that imperialist dependency and colonial relations are established independently and automatically from the momentary circumstances determining the class struggle. To advance this argument is to see imperialism as 'Almighty." Remember that it was Lenin's transportation from Switzerland to Saint Petersburg with the necessary material support of German imperialism that produced one of the finest moments of the First World War. The hope of the Germans was to contribute to the confusion in Russia and work toward the overthrow of the Czar. As a result Germany would end the Russian war and send all of it forces on the Eastern front to the Western front. The plan was carried out and civil insurrection broke out in Russia. The Soviet revolution became the most important response to those who in that period claimed that Lenin was a German agent. It was not the support which Germany gave to Lenin that determined the character of the process but the revolution which emerged from the creative forces of the class struggle in Russia. The class struggle has long since provided an answer to the question "is Lenin a great revolutionary or a collaborator with German imperialism" to all of those who were incessantly ringing the warning bells of collaboration. Just as it is now. We see that some are running the risk of declaring Lenin an imperialist collaborator and even a German agent in order to declare that the PYD is collaborating with imperialism. One is surprised and cannot help but ask: where is the dignity of all this hostility to the Kurds? -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
