Turkish paid Terrorists in Syria now Poverty-stricken as Lira collapses

NOTE: ‘TheFreeOnline’ blog which copied the post below is now banned in Turkey along with Dozens more pro Rojava and anti Fascist sites

ALEPPO, Syria — What a disaster! The record freefall of the Turkish lira (TL) against the US dollar has cut by up to 40% the salaries of the thousands of FSA islamist mercenaries, the famous ‘evil medievils’..

These ex Syrian rebels, many ex ISIS fanatics, are hired by Turkey to invade, loot, bomb, rape and ‘Turkify’ areas of their country illegally occupied by Erdogan’s military.Erdogan’s FSA army supplement their dwindling salaries by openly looting in Afrin, as well as extortion, kidnapping and property seizures. see ANHA reports

‘The repercussions of the money depreciation were most visible in these area since a large segment of its Syrian residents are ”civil servants” and who receive their salaries in collapsing Turkish Lira, and have to change to Syrian pounds to spend it’.

The ‘Euphrates Shield’ areas in the Aleppo countryside, controlled by the Free Syrian Army (FSA), is a region invaded by Turkey which control it with their own troops and hired FSA military police.

Local councils are run from Turkey, schools teaching Turkish, all with a far right wing Sunni Islam and extreme anti-women policy to counter the influence of the democratic and feminist Rojava Revolution .

Erdogan has repeatedly boasted he will take over most of Syria and Iraq in this way and remake the Ottoman Empire. This meansTurkification, expulsions and planting of new population (including thousands of Urghur Turkmen from China) .

Erdogan himself set off the money crisis by imprisoning tens of thousands, borrowing hugely for vast useless schemes (like the border wall with Rojava) , refusing to raise interest rates. Now he will need to borrow much more and double the salaries of the huge army of depraved ex rebels he has let loose.

The Turkish lira registered on Aug. 23 6.07 against the dollar and became the equivalent to a mere 70 Syrian pounds (SP). The monthly salary of Syrian ”employees” in the Euphrates Shield area of 500 TL would be equivalent to 35,000 SP, or about $85. This petty amount is not enough to meet basic monthly needs.

“More than 100,000 Syrian people in the Euphrates Shield area receive their salaries from the Turkish government ..Local councils, police and general security forces, [FSA] fighters, teachers, but also preachers and mosque staff were all affected by the sharp decline of the Lira. Their salaries now barely cover their living expenses.”

Some Info shared from: Khaled al-Khatebs, a Syrian journalist and former lecturer in the Geography Department of the University of Aleppo. Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com

#BreakSilenceOnAfrin One of the hundreds of former ISIS fighters who fled to Turkey, recruited as “FSA” and now is attacking Afrin together with turks. This is turkey’s war on Kurds.

The Turkish lira’s volatility is a new illustration of how the involvement of regional or global powers in Syria’s fractured warscape can change things for people on the ground.

Besides Turkey, Iran, Russia and the United States each have forces deployed in Syria, all the combatants in the war have to be paid by one unscrupulous backer or another . With the war winding down many factions have lost their salaries and Erdogan has seizEd the opportunity to convert them into Turkish mercenaries.

“When the Turkish lira began to lose value against the Syrian pound our salaries became worthless,” said Ghassan Kinno, 23, a fighter with a Free Syrian Army rebel faction in Azaz. “The fighter receives his salary and goes to the market… and it’s barely enough for one week. This is the reality we are witnessing now. The situation is very difficult and there is no solution,” he said.

Local political and military realities mean the lira and its fluctuations may continue to play an important role in Turkish occupied Syria. “What is better for us is to be paid in Syrian pounds since we are spending our money in the Syrian territories. But in the end we have to abide by the rules of the side that supports us,” said Kinno.

info from Khalil Ashawi and Angus McDowall at ANHA

Clashes in Jarabulus city, Aleppo, injure two members of military police

Turkey has presented the town of Jarablus, which they invaded in 2016 by agreement with ISIS, as a model for ‘Peace in a Post War Syria’ ,

The reality is very different, it’s run by an Islamic fundamentalist council implementing a Turkification agenda. Continuing clashes between rival jihadi factions and the Turkish controlled military police, many of them ex ISIS terrorists illustrate the lack of peace.

August 28th 2018 ”The military police of the Free Syrian Army clashed again with the Ahrar al-Sharqiah faction in the city of Jarabulus. A military source who preferred to remain anonymous reported that the two military police officers received minor injuries during the clashes.

The source added that the al-Shamiah Front intervened to solve the conflict, and Turkish forces fired gunshots into the air to scatter the conflicting parties.

In June 2018, clashes between the Ahrar al-Sham Islamist Movement and the al-Shamal Brigade of the FSA killed a civilian and injured several fighters in Jarabulus. After the clashes, civilians demonstrated, demanding all opposition factions exit the city”.

info partly from Nouha Salti at Smart News

SYRIA: The life and work of anarchist Omar Aziz in the Syrian revolution

Resisting Slavery: From Marie-Joseph Angélique 1734 to Prison Strike 2018

We postered along the same streets that Angélique was paraded down moments before she was hung, and then burned.

Text for a poster distributed by anarchists in Montreal linking historical struggles against slavery to the current prison strike. Some anarchists came together on the night of August 23rd to cover Montréal’s Vieux Port (Old Port) in posters that read in both French and English:

Resisting Slavery: From Marie-Joseph Angélique 1734 to Prison Strike 2018 ..August 21 – September 9th 2018 More Info: twitter.com/JailLawSpeak

By Anonymous Contributor at Its Going Down

We postered along the same streets that Angélique was paraded down moments before she was hung, and then burned. Angélique, we remember. Slavery, stolen land, and attempted genocide define the contours of the ever-forming settler states of Turtle Island (North America).

In solidarity with prisoners currently fighting slavery inside all US prisons, we wanted to (re)tell the story of Marie-Joseph Angélique. Angélique was a Black woman enslaved in Montréal during the 18th Century who was sentenced to torture and death for allegedly setting fire to her slave owner’s domicile, which resulted in the majority of the city of Montréal burning.

We offer Angélique’s story as a reminder that Québec and Canada were engaged in the practice of slavery for over 200 years. We chose Angélique’s story because it connects the city we live in to the ongoing story of resistance to slavery on this continent.

US prisoners have used this strike to reference a long history of resistance to slavery. August 21, 1831 marked the start of Nat Turner’s Rebellion, a significant moment of resistance by enslaved people.

August 21, 1971 also marks the day the state killed George Jackson, a Black revolutionary prisoner deeply involved in struggles for the liberation of Black peoples. Jackson’s death ignited an intense period of prison organizing.

September 9, 1971 marks the start of the Attica Uprising, one of the most significant moments of resistance inside US prisons. Prisoners at Attica released a list of comprehensive demands to improve their living conditions. Those demands were never met but have clearly influenced the prisoners on strike today.

Resistance to slavery is an ongoing struggle for those facing incarceration in the United States. The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution states:

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Slavery actively continues within US prisons. The 13th Amendment legally justifies the violent, brutal conditions that define this carceral system. These conditions are what prisoners across the States will be striking against over the next two weeks.

And while Canada does not have a similar constitutional amendment, we view prisons not only as an apparatus of domination, but also as an extension of Canada’s settler colonial project.

The primary aim for the settler colonial project is to control land for settlement and for the extraction of “natural resources”.

It is through these capitalist relationships to land that the colonial system secures its wealth and future existence. However, First Nations, Inuit and Métis Nations are viewed by the political and economic elite as an obstacle to this settler future.

The settler state and society have employed tactics and strategies such as: racialized and class-motivated surveillance, policing, military repression, and incarceration. Containment and control are not only central to the settler colonial project, but prisons and incarceration are a strategic part of keeping Indigenous people off the land, and thus less able to challenge state power.

Slavery, stolen land, and attempted genocide are the founding stories of the settler states occupying this continent, and they are the foundations of the systems we seek to abolish.

We weave together these aforementioned moments in history to illustrate how they belong to a longer, more global context of colonial expansion, exploitation for profit, and great wealth for some humans at the expense of the objectification of so many forms of life.

Solidarity with the prisoners on strike, in memory of Angélique.

Against prisons, against slavery, against colonialism!

URL link to poster pdf files: https://archive.org/details/PrisonStrike2018posters

Philadelphia, PA: #PrisonStrike Noise Demo Report Back

By Philly Anti-Cap August 26, 2018

Report back from the Friendly Fire Collective about the recent noise demonstration in solidarity with the #PrisonStrike.

As the local Friendly Fire group, we decided that we would cancel our prayer meeting in order to attend an action instead. As endorsers of the National Prison Strike, and as followers of Jesus, a revolutionary abolitionist, we felt that participating in this noise demo in solidarity with striking prisoners was important.

The action as a whole turned out great. Dozens of folks showed up in front of the Juvenile Justice Services Center in West Philly with drums, pots, pans, whistles, even a saxophone – anything to make noise with.

This energy of this action was bright and joyful and yet felt a bit more militant than other recent actions, with a spontaneous blockade erected and chants such as “Burn the banks, burn the prisons, just make sure the cops are in ’em” and – a Friendly Fire favorite – “God Hates Cops.”

There seemed to be a lot of support from those in the surrounding community, who raised their fists, honked in support, and for the most part, happily learned about the Prison Strike. A number of folks, even families, joined the protest.

We concluded by reading the demands publicly and then marched down Market Street.

We are thankful for everybody who came out and the IWW comrades who organized this action. May God be with those striking prisoners, may their demands be heard and met, and may all those opposing their work and livelihood face God’s most severe judgment.

For more information on the Prison Strike: https://incarceratedworkers.org/campaigns/prison-strike-2018

Israeli invaders kill 168, wound 17,259, shoot Peace Activist twice. Boycott Israel!

From May to 13 August 2018, 168 Palestinians have been been killed protesting the closed Gaza border.^{[wikipedia 3]} By the end of July 2018, 17,259 had been injured, many permanently maimed.

Norwegian Palestine-solidarity activist Kristin Foss was shot twice in a week by Israeli soldiers. The first time she was shot whilst standing with her hands raised, and the second occurred when she was standing against a wall.

Israeli forces shoot Norwegian peace activist twice in one week (VIDEO)

Kristin was standing still with her hands raised when she was shot in Kafr Qaddum during a weekly demonstration last Saturday. Image result for total number casualties Great Return Gaza Mourners console the mother (C) of 15-year-old Palestinian teenager Azzam, murdered by the Israeli army.

Foss and another activist were walking with an elderly Palestinian man who asked them to help him get back to his car which the soldiers were using as a shield. International activists often attend Palestinian protests in a bid to discourage Israelis from using excessive force.

The man was talking to the soldiers and Foss and the other activist were filming from a distance. A soldier tells Foss it is dangerous and she responds: “It’s dangerous that you’re pointing a gun at us,” as a shot is fired. Seconds later, another shot is heard and Foss is hit in the abdomen.

The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said last week it had asked the Israeli authorities to explain the circumstances, VG reports.

Foss, who is an International Solidarity Movement volunteer, returned to the village the next Friday to support demonstrators. The weekly protests at Kafr Qaddum are to demonstrate against the closure of a road which has been closed to Palestinians for seven years, forcing them to travel more than 14 km (9 miles) to reach the regional capital of Nablus.

Bruises and wound on Foss’s abdomen

In a video, filmed before she was shot, she said that although the demonstrations had not started, the IDF had already “invaded the town.”

Foss was leaning against a wall “well behind” the demonstrations when she was shot in the ankle by a rubber bullet, she told RT. Related image

When she was in an ambulance with another man who had been shot in the shoulder, they had to turn back after another person was shot in the head.

An IDF spokesperson told RT that the protests were “violent riots” and “Palestinians threw stones at IDF soldiers and burned tires.”

https://www.nytimes.com/video/players/offsite/index.html?videoId=100000005932394

US Military Aid to Israel Set to Exceed a Record $3.8 Billion

Aug 3, 2018 – WASHINGTON — In an event largely overlooked by the U.S. media, the Senate passed a bill on Wednesday that would provide Israel with $3.3 billion or $23,000 Per Year for Every Jewish Family Living in Israel

Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS

Join a BDS Campaign |

Israel’s rulers just laugh at our solidarity protests and ignore dozens of UN rulings and International Law.

But they do start to listen ( a bit) when targeted boycott’s hit their pockets.

Lets organize to force them to lift the siege of Gaza and at least compensate the Palestinians and treat them equally.

You can really help.. check out the BDS movement below …

BDS Movement | https://bdsmovement.net/

Join a BDS Campaign | BDS Movement https://bdsmovement.net/get-involved/join-a-bds-campaign

Eviction Case dropped after 2000 strong demo in Iruñea/Pamplona for re-Squatted ‘Gaztxe Maravillas’ (Marvels Youth Center)

Maravillas is a tool to move towards the social, radical and complete transformation of our lives. That is why defending spaces like Maravillas is to defend all the projects and people that fight every day for a just world …

The occupied self run center in the Palace of the Marquis of Rozalejo of Pamplona, 20 yrs abandoned and occupied eleven months before, was violently evicted in the middle of the night by the Navarra Govt despite widespread local support. see videos..

Then 2 days later it was resquatted by the same collective who prepared to resist again ‘tooth and nail’.

The Assembly of ‘Gaztetxe Maravillas’, strongly anarcha feminist, demanded that the Government of Navarre “paralyze the eviction process” of the building and “withdraw the complaint against the accused persons” .

The festive march last Saturday was supported by many collectives and local people. Thousands of people have joined the protest led by a banner reading “Wonders Herriantzat” (Wonders for the People) and a second slogan that “is not a gaztetxe, but a way to understand the world” .

Maravillas is the center of a ‘Pamplona Spring’ with all kinds of creative activities taking off. The organisation is assembly based without leaders. Continue reading “Eviction Case dropped after 2000 strong demo in Iruñea/Pamplona for re-Squatted ‘Gaztxe Maravillas’ (Marvels Youth Center)”

The Pope’s Visit To Ireland – Everything You Need To Know

from Waterford Whispers with thanks… Add Comment at WWN

WWN, like any self-respecting news publication or online copy and paste outlet, is only too happy to cash in on people’s curiosity about the Pope’s visit to Ireland.We could run a series of features and articles that asked tough questions and refuse to just give the Pope a bit of free publicity, but instead we’ve provided you with those gas stories about Pope lollipops and Pope action figures. It gas because it’s like Father Ted!

Without further ado, here’s all you need to know about the ins and outs of Pope Francis’s visit to Ireland:

1) Road closures: On Saturday between 6am and 7pm road closures in place from Patrick Street and Dawson’s Street to Cathal Brugha Street, Sean McDermott Street and King’s Street North. Full info: https://www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/pope-in-ireland/

2) Pope Francis appointed Juan Barros to the position of Bishop of Osorno despite knowing he stood accused of covering up child sex abuse by priests in Chile. But in fairness, it’ll still be a cracking mass in the Phoenix Park. Mass setlist here: https.www.vatican.va/papal-mass-ireland

3) Skoda are the official provider of the Pope mobile. Gas, the Pope in a Skoda? Haha. Have a look at the beast here: http://www.skoda.ie/

4) The head of child protection within the church, Cardinal O’Malley, couldn’t attend the World Meetings of Families due to an emerging sexual abuse scandal in his own diocese. Cardinal Wuerl, former bishop in Pennysylvania, withdrew too due to his role in concealing sexual abuse, as did Carindal Kevin Farrell due to the fact he shared an apartment with the Pennsylvania paedophile Cardinal Theodore McCarrick for several years, failing to report his crimes. And we were really looking forward to O’Malley’s talk on keeping children safe.

5) Starting on Marlborough St and finishing on Church St (lol, get it?), the Papal procession is scheduled to start at 4.15pm Saturday and will take 25mins. Full info: http://www.dublincity.ie/main-menu-services-roads-and-traffic-current-roadworks-temporary-road-closures/papal-visit

6) Attendees at the World Meeting of Families are handing out leaflets which lie and falsely claim having an abortion can result in developing breast cancer.

7) From 6am until 11.59pm on Sunday there will be significant road closures in place surrounding the Phoenix Park. For full list of closures just look at a map of Dublin.

8) 18 religious orders in Ireland still have not paid full compensation to victims of clerical sexual abuse. That mass is going to be something else though, in fairness!

9) The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child confirmed in a 2014 report that the Church partook in the ‘trafficking, abduction and sale of children’ in Ireland as well as placing women in ‘slavery-like’ conditions in Magdalene Laundries. The report also highlighted the Vatican’s mistreatment of child abuse victims via a programme of silencing, obstructing and humiliating them. The Pope’s visit will be one to treasure for all families.

10) The Rainbow Choir, an LGBTI choir, had formally applied to be part of the World Meeting of Families event but never received a response from organisers. Speakers at the event have also maintained that paedophiles priests are not to blame for the abuse of children nor is the church to blame for covering such things up rather it is the fault of secular gay men and women. Good wholesome Catholic information.

from Waterford Whispers with thanks…

Women of Syria and Their Daily Resistance

by Alexandra Valiente and Marinella Correggia at Internationalist 360°. shared with thanks

The oriental fable “Appointment in Samarra”, of the soldier rushing away from his destiny of death while indeed rushing into this very destiny (it is the theme of the song Samarcanda by Roberto Vecchioni) seems well suited to what Om Ahmad is telling us.

Robust, flowered scarf on her head and black dress, sitting on the cushions that serve as a sofa in the bare apartment rented in Masaken Barzeh district, she explains that her husband, an auto mechanic, and their three sons lived in Douma, the most Islamist area of Eastern Ghouta.

“Over five years ago, while several formations of musallahin – armed Islamist groups – were coming to the area, we closed the house and came here to Damascus, where we had friends”.Her second child Rabee, now sixteen, is in a wheelchair. “One day, three years ago, he and my husband were in the mechanical workshop…. when it was hit by a missile that targeted Damascus, starting right from the area that we had left behind.”

Rabee’s father died in the explosion, and the boy’s mangled legs had to be amputated. Continue reading “Women of Syria and Their Daily Resistance”