Issued by the Office of the Chairperson
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
August 5, 2015
We, from the International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS), express our most heartfelt condolences to the families, comrades and friends of the 31 youth belonging to the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations who were martyred by the terrorist attack of a suicide bomber at the Amara Culture Centre in the Kurdish town of Suruc on July 20. We likewise convey our sympathy for the more than a hundred youth injured in the attack.
The victims were among 300 Kurdish youth who assembled in the park to prepare for going to Kobane to help set up projects in that war-torn town. They came from both Kurdish and Turkish backgrounds. They had been meeting to draw up travel plans to Kobane to help rebuild the town. Suruc is only a few miles away from the border town of Kobane in the north of Syria.
There is preponderant evidence that the Turkish authorities allowed the ISIS suicide bomber to pass through the intensive surveillance and tight cordon that they had imposed on the town of Suruc, which is governed by the progressive Halklarin Demoratik Partisi (People’s Democratic Party), which consistently supports the struggle of the Kurds in Syria and opposes the support of Turkey for Islamic fundamentalist groups there.
Both the Erdogan and Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are interested in wreaking vengeance on the Kurdish forces in the north of Syria for having made important advances against ISIS in the previous six months and for strengthening themselves by taking away important towns and border crossings from the clutches of ISIS.
We condemn both the ISIS and the Erdogan regime of Turkey for this heinous crime. It is well-known that this fascist regime has coddled ISIS by allowing this terrorist organization to have training bases inside Turkey. The Turkish regime collaborates with ISIS in the war of suppression against the PKK-led Kurdish liberation movement that is active in Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq.
It is also a well-known fact that this terrorist organization is financed and armed by the US-puppet regimes in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar and is being used by the US to justify its military aggression in Syria, which is aimed at overthrowing the Assad regime.
The whole world has been inspired by the heroic resistance of the Kurdish fighters from the YPG who fought the ISIS terrorists in Kobane. The victims of the massacre in Suruc were preparing to go to Kobane as part of a campaign for the reconstruction of that war-ravaged town. They were going there to help build a library, a park for children and a small hospital.
Turkey has recently escalated its attacks against the Kurdish liberation movement by conducting air strikes against PKK strongholds in Iraq and Turkey. The Turkish air force has practically played the role of air force for the ISIS against the Kurdish people.
The US, its NATO allies, the Zionist Israeli regime and the US-puppet Arab regimes in the Middle-East are the cause of social disorder, fascist terror and endless wars in the region. They are guilty of the most despicable war crimes and crimes against humanity. Their criminal actions must be exposed, condemned and opposed by all justice-seeking and peace-loving people of the world.
We call on all ILPS member organizations throughout the world to condemn ISIS and Turkey for the Suruc massacre, and the US for the dirty wars it is carrying out in the Middle East. We enjoin the ILPS member organizations to issue solidarity statements and organize solidarity actions for the Kurdish people who are waging a difficult and heroic struggle for national self-determination and social liberation. ###
