#north and east syria

[dougielombax]

Just leaving this here.

Feel free to reblog.

Fuck Erdogan and his cronies for this shit!

Feel free to reblog.

[boysborntodie]

“I don’t talk about Palestine because I don’t like going into politics : /” fuck you. The existence of Muslims and MENA people has always been political to the West. Their lives and their deaths. Their happiness and anger and sorrow. Their love and hatred. Their sweat and blood and tears. Everything has always been reduced to politics when they are more than you could ever begin to comprehend. Palestine will be free. And so will Sudan and Pakistan and Lebanon and Yemen and Syria and every other country, place and people who suffer only for their pain to be called political by those responsible for and complicit in it

[vividdreamer]

Donald Trump is not anti-war.

Disclaimer: I am not pro-Kamala and I do not support the Democrats.

[serinyxx]

[shwbyy]

I am Lebanese. I used to be really white washed when I was a kid. I used to wish I was completely Australian and not have any Lebanese in me at all.

Just recently have I started embracing my culture and heritage as a Lebanese woman and I dreamed of visiting Lebanon again so I could absorb what I missed out on appreciating as a child. The language, the history, the food, the people.

Israel is currently bombing Lebanon as well as Palestine and Syria. This isn’t the beginning, but it’s scary. People have died/been injured, including children. I fear that the country that I used to not acknowledge as my native land, the country that I now hold so much respect and love for, the country that I wanted to come back to after I graduated so that I could finally embrace my rich culture, will be reduced to rubble.

To my Arab friends, Israel is already counting on people to forget and be apathetic about their actions. They spread lies and hatred about the Middle East and its people. They terrorise the inhabitants, steal their land, destroy their homes and try to cleanse them of their ethnicity. If Israel is already doing all this to try and eradicate our history and culture, we cannot assist them in this process.

Be proud about who you are, now more than ever. Be loud. Be irritating. Be the flies in their ear, they already see us as insects. Don’t ever be ashamed of where you come from, who you are. Your culture, values and beliefs are instilled in you from the moment you are born and are attacked the moment you are born. Keep them close to your heart because you have a heart, a functional one. One that feels empathy, compassion, kindness, love, joy, appreciation. In a world where these things are in such short supply, they are more valuable than ever.

Be MENA and proud in a world that tries to tear you down from the moment you rise.

Free Palestine.

[crynwr-drwg]

The thing that honestly put me off of anarchists is they seem to think everyone is equally qualified to do anything. Accessibility ramps built by hobbyists, building codes set by Minecraft girlies, etc. And when this inevitably blows up in someone’s face and hurts someone? How do you hold anyone accountable in an anarchist society? How do you have OSHA in one?

My head is killing me today, so apologies if any of this is worded poorly.

I can see where you'd get this idea, and where you're coming from, but I can assure you that these things are very much accounted for. A good example of this is in the Autonmous Administration of North and East Syria, where I can speak first hand that professionall schooled and trained engineers arein charge of rebuilding infrastructure. There is also equally trained and qualified people in most other risky-professional roles, like medicine and such.

There absolutely are anarchists that either go "idk lol" or say that nothing is needed. I hate doign this, because it makes me look like one too, but I would just recommend to ignore a lot fo these types, because they usually end up just liking Aanrchism as a "vibes" thing rather than as a mode of structure and organising.

It's hard to give many examples of it all in action, since most anarchist communtiies are small (which is part of the point) but that's also why AANES is a great example for a lot of this in action/

If any of this didn't answer your question, let me know and I'd be happy to rephrase or answer it better. I'm shite at words, haha.

[scottishcommune]

On the 4th anniversary of the Turkish invasion and subsequent occupation of the ‘M4 Strip,’ RIC interviewed Berzan Abdullah, one of the members of the administration of Washokani camp, near Heseke city, and Souria Mohamed Hussain, a resident of this camp...

Between the 5th and the 10th of October 2023, Turkey escalated its attacks on NES, carrying out an intense aerial bombardment campaign that primarily targeted civilian infrastructure. Near the beginning of this campaign, the vicinity of Washokani camp itself was a target for Turkey’s airstrikes. When asked about these recent attacks, Berzan Abdullah replies that “near Washokani camp they [Turkey] struck four times with drones and warplanes. As a result, the residents of the camp on the western side had no choice but to leave their tents. There was fear in their hearts. To be honest, we would not be surprised if Turkey targeted inside the camp, because we expect anything from Turkey now.” During the 6 days of escalated aggression from Turkey, 48 people were killed and many more were injured. Berzan Abdullah emphasizes that Turkey is targeting civilian sites, giving the example of the attacks near the camp, telling RIC that “the places they targeted here are poultry sheds and they belong to civilians… when you leave you can see them with your own eyes… there is not military position anywhere here.” Many of the families that reside in the camp are IDPs from Turkey’s 2019 invasion, and the recent attacks awakened old fears and traumas, says Abdullah, creating a negative psychological impact on the people. He explains that “they [the people from the camp] are very anxious, whenever they hear a sound, they fear it is the sound of a warplane, and that it will attack us. The situation is that Turkey adheres to no rules or treaty, we don’t know when they will attack again, we don’t know when they will launch another act of aggression.”

[afooldyedinfolly]

Not to be emo about being Kurdish on main again or whatever but like I am so fucking tired of this shit

[sepdet]

*glares at East Anatolian Fault*

STOP THAT.

(my quake app keeps waking me up with the dreaded "7 or above" alert sound. Hella big aftershocks on this monster. :( That one was almost as strong as the original quake.)

Note: times listed above are my timezone, PST, 11 hours earlier than Turkey.

[meandmybigmouth]

RUNNING OUT OF PEOPLE TO KILL AND OT DISPLACE AND BUILDINGS TO BOMB?

[dougielombax]

Just leaving this here.

Reblog the shit out of this.

Also this.

Fuck Erdogan for this shit!

[paulthepoke]

Yom Teruah/Rosh Hashanah/Feast of Trumpets; Middle East on Fire; 5785/5949/2024

Yom Teruah or the Feast of Trumpets is a day of blowing. Teruah means an alarm, a signal, a sound of tempest, a blast of war, or a battle cry. Today, Israel is at war.

Leviticus 23:23-25 Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord.’” Numbers 29:1 ‘Now in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall…

[theupfish]

Terrorism is on the decline

Suicide bombings have taken a sharp decline in the last twenty years, and terrorist attacks in general have been declining.

In the Middle East and North Africa, the areas most heavily impacted by terrorism, terror attacks have been going down. ISIS is losing territory in Iraq and Syria.

[weepingfireflies]

People & countries mentioned in the thread:

DR Congo - M23, Cobalt

Darfur, Sudan - International Criminal Court, CNN, BBC (Overview); Twitter Explanation on Sudan

Tigray - Human Rights Watch (Ethnic Cleansing Report)

the Sámi people - IWGIA, Euronews

Hawai'i - IWGIA

Syria - Amnesty International

Kashmir- Amnesty Summary (PDF), Wikipedia (Jammu and Kashmir), Human Rights Watch (2022)

Iran - Human Rights Watch, Morality Police (Mahsa/Jina Amini - Al Jazeera, Wikipedia)

Uyghurs - Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) Q&A, Wikipedia, Al Jazeera, UN Report

Tibetans - SaveTibet.org, United Nations

Yazidi people - Wikipedia, United Nations

West Papua - Free West Papua, Genocide Watch

Yemen - Human Rights Watch (Saudi border guards kill migrants), Carrd

Sri Lanka (Tamils) - Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch

Afghans in Pakistan - Al Jazeera, NPR

Ongoing Edits: more from the notes / me

Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh/Azerbaijan (Artsakh) - Global Conflict Tracker ("Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict"), Council on Foreign Relations, Human Rights Watch (Azerbaijan overview), Armenian Food Bank

Baháʼís in Iran - Bahá'í International Community, Amnesty, Wikipedia, Minority Rights Group International

Kafala System in the Middle East - Council on Foreign Relations, Migrant Rights

Rohingya - Human Rights Watch, UNHCR, Al Jazeera, UNICEF

Montagnards (Vietnam Highlands) - World Without Genocide, Montagnard Human Rights Organization (MHRO), VOA News

Ukraine - Human Rights Watch (April 2022), Support Ukraine Now (SUN), Ukraine Website, Schools & Education (HRW), Dnieper River advancement (Nov. 15, 2023 - Ap News)

Reblogs with Links / From Others

Indigenous Ppl of Canada, Cambodia, Mexico, Colombia

Libya

Armenia Reblog 1, Armenia Reblog 2

Armenia, Ukraine, Central African Republic, Indigenous Americans, Black ppl (US)

Rohingya (Myanmar)

More Hawai'i Links from @sageisnazty - Ka Lahui Hawaii, Nation of Hawai'i on Soverignty, Rejected Apology Resolution

From @rodeodeparis: Assyrian Policy Institute, Free Yezidi

From @is-this-a-cool-url: North American Manipur Tribal Association (NAMTA)

From @dougielombax & compiled by @azhdakha: Assyrians & Yazidis

West Sahara conflict

Last Updated: Feb. 19th, 2024 (If I missed smth before this, feel free to @ me to add it)

[raw1111official]

Hey #Lovers❤️‍🔥! Discover the delicious world of hummus 🥙 on 🌺RAW1111.COM🥑. Uncover its rich history and tasty varieties! #GVWU Go Vegan With Us 🌱💚

[xtruss]

Hundreds of detainees have died as a consequence of torture and inhumane treatment in Kurdish-run prisons in northeast Syria for people suspected of links to the Islamic State group (IS), according to Amnesty International.

In a new report published on Wednesday, the human rights organisation accused authorities and security forces in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) of committing war crimes at prisons and detention facilities where it said more than 56,000 people - the majority of them children - remain captive.

Launching the report on Wednesday, Nicolette Waldman, a senior crisis adviser at Amnesty, said the US government had played a "key role" in the detention system because of its support for the Kurdish authorities, including funding since 2015 totalling hundreds of millions of dollars.

"The US is involved in most aspects of this detention system. They played a key role in establishing the system in the first place and they've played a key role since in supporting and maintaining the system," said Waldman. The report found that US officials and military personnel had visited detention facilities and were likely aware of the brutal treatment inflicted on detainees.

Local officials told Amnesty that US intelligence bodies were involved in conducting interrogations of American nationals and Syrian and Iraqi detainees, while several other states had interrogated their own nationals.

"These interrogations, from what we were told, are very regular, they've been happening over the course of years and we were told that the US has interrogated all what are termed 'high-value' suspects as well as all of their nationals," Waldman told Middle East Eye. "Something that became clear through this process is just how much access there is for third states through this system of detention," Waldman added.

US forces had also delivered detainees into Kurdish custody, where they were subsequently tortured, and had repatriated detainees to countries, including Saudi Arabia and Iraq, where they were at risk of further rights abuses, Amnesty said.

Amnesty also said that scores and possibly hundreds of Yazidis captured and enslaved during IS militants' genocidal campaign against the minority group in Iraq and Syria likely remained among about 14,500 women and 30,000 children being held at the Al-Hol and Al-Roj detention camps.

Most of those held in the camps were rounded up during the final battles between IS militants and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) near Baghouz in 2019, and many women were victims of trafficking and forced marriages with IS militants, it said.

While the arbitrary detention of women and children at Al-Hol and Al-Roj, and the reluctance of some countries to repatriate their own nationals from the camps, have long been condemned by rights groups, Amnesty's report reveals harrowing details about conditions inside a network of prisons and interrogation facilities where about 11,500 men are still being held.

It highlighted the Sini detention facility, near Al-Shaddadi city in Al-Hasakah governorate, where it said thousands of prisoners had been subjected to "unrelenting and systematic brutality" resulting in at least hundreds of deaths.

"Former detainees said they were subjected to torture or other ill-treatment primarily in the form of beating with various implements, but also including whipping with electrical cables, suspension from the wrists in what is known as the shabeh stress position, sexual violence and electric shocks," the report said.

In one incident in 2020, a former detainee said that 17 people in his cell had died of suffocation after prison authorities turned off an exhaust fan. Other former detainees said the bodies of those who died were buried in a mass grave inside the prison complex. Former detainees also described routinely being denied access to adequate food, water and medical care.

One detainee said that he and his cellmates had regularly gone for two or three days without water, leaving them so thirsty that on one occasion one of his cellmates tried to drink urine from the toilet in the cell.

"Former detainees said the combination of the physical abuse, inhumane conditions and lack of medical care led to the deaths of at least many hundreds of people, if not more. Former detainees recounted witnessing friends and other cellmates dying in front of them, sometimes in large numbers," the report said.

Amnesty said that about 800 detainees remained in the prison in 2023, down from about 3,000 to 4,000 detainees prior to 2022. One former detainee told Amnesty that US soldiers had visited the prison in 2021 to collect biometric data and check on the state of the prison.

"We know the Americans, they come with their weapons and their dogs... [They] checked on the prison, and they searched us, and all of our rooms... [We] were going outside to the courtyard. It was the same courtyard where we were tortured. They were able to see the blood on the wall. They could see the people who were injured from torture," the report quoted the detainee as saying.

At another detention facility in al-Hasakah city, known as Panorama, Amnesty said that a lack of adequate medical care had resulted in an outbreak of tuberculosis that had been ongoing and unchecked for years.

Kurdish officials confirmed to Amnesty that nearly 600 detainees held at Panorama had died as a result of tuberculosis and other diseases, according to the report. Torture and mistreatment had been systematically used in another 15 detention facilities to coerce confessions, extract intelligence or as a form of punishment, Amnesty said.

Women held in camps and prisons also described incidents of torture and sexual violence. One former detainee said she had been subjected to electric shocks while pregnant.

Waldman said: "Men, women and children told us they were subjected to the same methods of torture. They included electric shocks, stress positions, severe beating. The majority of these people we interviewed were Syrians who were being tortured to confess."

According to the report, about 42 percent of detainees (about 23,500 people) are Syrian, 37 percent (20,700) Iraqi, and the remaining 21 percent (11,700) foreign nationals from approximately 74 countries.

Amnesty called on AANES to investigate and address allegations of torture and other abuses, and to end practices which it said had led to "mass death as well as severe pain and suffering".

It called on the US government and its anti-IS coalition allies to take steps to enforce international humanitarian law. And it called for a United Nations-led international response to address "the detention crisis in northeast Syria".

Agnes Callamard, Amnesty's secretary general, said: "The autonomous authorities, the US government, other members of the coalition and the UN must all work together and prioritise the urgent development of a comprehensive strategy to bring this shameful system into compliance with international law and identify justice solutions to finally hold perpetrators of IS's atrocity crimes to account.

"They should conduct an urgent screening process to identify individuals in detention who should be immediately released, with a particular focus on victims of IS crimes and at-risk groups.

"While this is under way, they must ensure that the violations being committed are stopped immediately, and reports of torture and death are independently investigated." Amnesty's report follows a plea last month by Paulo Pinheiro, the chair of the UN's International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, for action to address the situation of the 30,000 children still detained in the camps.

Kurdish officials did not respond to MEE's request for comment. But in a response to Amnesty, the AANES said it operated in compliance with international human rights laws. It said it had "not received any information or complaints" regarding alleged torture, and said that if abuses had occurred they were "individual acts".

It said allegations about ill treatment and lack of food, water and healthcare in detention facilities were untrue, but admitted there were shortages of medical supplies and conditions of overcrowding in detention facilities. AANES highlighted the difficult conditions it faced, including continuing conflict and a lack of resources to manage and maintain the prisons and camps. It said members of the international community had failed to "fulfil their legal and moral obligations" by failing to repatriate their own nationals.

The US State Department also called for the repatriation of detained foreign nationals to their countries of origin and said it "remained committed to addressing the dire humanitarian and security challenges" in the region.

It said: "We take seriously and remain deeply concerned about reports of human rights abuses including extrajudicial killings; torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; arbitrary detention; and enforced disappearance.

"We continuously urge all actors in Syria, including the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to uphold human rights, protect civilians, and to respond appropriately to allegations of abuse and civilian harm, including by holding perpetrators accountable as appropriate.

— ✍️ Simon Hooper