Statement from new WRI affiliate: Conscientious Objection Association: We have neither a second nor a life to give to war!

WRI has welcomed VİCDANİ RET DERNEĞİ (VR-DER) -  the Conscientious Objection Association in Turkey - as an associate member.

You can find their details on the list of affiliates here.

This weekend VR-DER issued the below statement, on the situation in Kobane, and the Turkish government's response to ISIS

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Conscientious Objection Association: We have neither a second nor a life to give to war!

The authorities initiated a “peace process” after the Turkish state and military conducted a thirty-year-old war which left thousands of casualties. The process was conceptualized as a step towards constructive dialogue with the Kurdish movement. However, the state did not abandon its long lived habit of providing peace with its arms, tanks and bombs. Families lost their children and funerals never stopped although a ceasefire was announced and armed groups left the Turkish borders.

As we all see with the recent developments in Kobanê, the state continues its catastrophes in the region by providing assistance to ISIS. The government's war discourse indicates that the authorities do not have any intention to construct peace. It shows that the government is instead at a point of war preparation.

On the basis of an excuse to prevent increasing violence at the borders of Suruç, the government has already legalized a parliamentary note which permits the deployment of its troops in the region. However, this deployment is nothing but a sign of preparation for an upcoming bloody war. The government wants to attain “peace” through new wars and plans to send soldiers outside of the borders, although it seems to be “surprised” in the light of increasing violence in the Middle East.

The government condemns ISIS, which is a perfect example of how political interests result in violence, but simultaneously closes the doors to those people of Kobanê who run away from war.

We know that the parliamentary note, any military expedition, and any threat against the resistance in the region is a sign of an upcoming massacre in Kobanê. Military buildups in Suruç, states of emergency in many regions of Kurdistan, excessive violence of security forces against those people who resist war on the streets clearly indicates the reason why we must resist a war in the region and a massacre in Kobanê.

As conscientious objectors, antimilitarists and war resisters, we know that this parliamentary note is not a solution. Previous notes not only failed to provide a sustainable peace but furthered and deepened the conflicts. The war process that goes on in Turkey carries us to the point of unending conflicts.

As conscientious objectors, antimilitarists and war resisters, we refuse in order to raise the voice of people who run away from war; to raise the voices of resisters who fight in Kobane.

We refuse ISIS, state assistance to massacres, closed borders, attacks of security forces over the people who resist for their lives, violence over those who are forcefully displaced from their homes, villages and lands, enslavement of women at the markets, bombs killings the children and parliamentary decision to permit the deployment of troops…

And we say it again out loud: We have neither a second nor a life to give to war. The “peace” which you will supposedly provide with a war against ISIS - which is the result of your own assistance for them - will bring nothing but massacres in the region.

Our voices and the voices of Kobane are not the voices of war. It is the voice of peace. It is the call for a life without borders.

Kobane is life, we reject for life!

Conscientious Objection Association

www.vicdaniret.org