Support the ongoing liberation struggle against the Russian-Iranian-Assadist occupiers! No to Turkey’s collaboration with Russian imperialism!

 

Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 14 July 2020, www.thecommunists.net

 

 

 

1.             Today, liberation forces in Idlib in the north of Syria have launched a successful attack against Russian forces participating in a Russian-Turkish Joint Patrol on the M4 highway. According to the defence ministry in Moscow, a Russian armoured personnel carrier was severely damaged and three Russian soldiers were injured. It also claimed that Turkish soldiers were injured too albeit this has been denied by other sources. According to first reports, the Khattab al-Shishani Brigades – a Chechen unit supporting the Syrian Revolution – have claimed responsibility for the attack and said that one of its militants undertook this shaheed operation.

 

2.             The joint patrols of Russian and Turkish military on the M4 highway are a crucial part of the treacherous Moscow ceasefire agreement between Putin and Erdoğan on 5 March. The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) has opposed this agreement from the very beginning, as have large sectors of the Syrian people in Idlib and various factions of the liberation forces. We reiterate that “these patrols are essential for the implementation of the reactionary plan to establish a so-called security corridor on either side of the M4. If implemented this corridor would effectively cut the southern part of Idlib, which is still controlled by the liberation fighters, from the rest of the region.” (RCIT Statement, 15 March 2020) For this reasons, the RCIT welcomed the large popular protests in March with civilians occupying and blockading the M4 highway in order to stop these patrol.

 

3.             The RCIT considers today’s attack against the Russian military forces as a legitimate act of resistance. Russian imperialism is the main backer of the tyrannical Assad regime without which it would have already collapsed long ago.

 

4.             We also condemn Turkey’s collaboration with Russian imperialism. As we have said in the past years, the deals between Putin and Erdoğan (Astana, Sochi, and Moscow) are tantamount to a counter-revolutionary conspiracy which has weakened the ongoing Syrian Revolution.

 

5.             Since the martyrdom operation seems to have been carried out by a Chechen brigade, the RCIT also reiterates it’s unconditional solidarity with the Chechen people suffering under the yoke of the Putin regime and its local lackey Kadyrov. The Chechen people have been nationally oppressed for most of the time since the Caucasus was conquered by Russia in the 19^th century. They demonstrated their desire to separate from Russia twice after the collapse of Stalinism in 1991. In two heroic civil wars in 1994-96 and 1999-2009, the Chechen people fought for an independent state. Russian imperialism was able to ultimately defeat these liberation struggles only with the most barbaric methods and heavy losses among its own army. It is estimated that the two wars have resulted in the killing of hundreds of thousands of Chechens (out of a total population of Chechnya of little more than one million people!) and the displacement of the majority of the population!

 

6.             The RCIT remains committed to the support for the liberation struggle of the Syrian workers and poor peasants. We call the workers and popular organization around the world to launch a powerful international campaign in solidarity with the Syrian Revolution!

 

Defend Idlib - Defeat Assad and the Russian-Iranian Occupiers! Don’t Let Idlib Die!

 

Freedom for Chechnya!

 

 

 

International Bureau of the RCIT

 

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

 

The RCIT has published a number of booklets, statements, and articles on the Syrian Revolution that can be accessed on a special sub-section of this website: https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/collection-of-articles-on-the-syrian-revolution/. Our call “Save the Syrian Revolution!” has been published in six languages and can be read here in English: https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/call-save-the-syrian-revolution/.

 

In particular we refer readers to our latest statements:

 

Idlib: Syrian Protestors Stop Russian-Turkish Joint Patrol on the M4 Highway, 15 March 2020, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/idlib-syrian-protestors-stop-russian-turkish-joint-patrol-on-m4-highway/

 

Idlib: Putin-Erdoğan Deal is a Sell-Out of the Syrian Revolution! 6 March 2020, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/idlib-putin-erdogan-deal-is-sell-out-of-syrian-revolution/

 

Syria: On the Turkish-Russian Confrontation in Idlib, 29 February 2020, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/syria-on-the-turkish-russian-confrontation-in-idlib/