Open Letter: We Stand with the Kurdish People of Syria!

From members of Democracy Seminar 2.0:

We are writing as scholars and citizens of the world to express our concern for the Kurdish people of Syria, whose fate has been dramatically altered by events that started with a phone call between President Donald Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on October 6, 2019. Since then, the United States has started pulling out most of its military forces from the area, and Turkish forces have moved in and have invited the Free Syrian Army to join them. In the Northern corridor that Turkey currently controls, and in the nearly two weeks that have passed, Amnesty International already documented “a shameful disregard for civilian life, carrying out serious violations and war crimes, including summary killings and unlawful attacks that have killed and injured civilians.” Schools were bombed, leaving behind children buried under the rubble. Convoys of civilians trying desperately to flee to safety were struck, resulting in what one journalist described as “an absolute massacre.”

We stand with the civilian population of this region to demand accountability for the actions taken by the political leaders of these countries. We condemn the complete disregard for the lives of so many innocent people. Already embroiled in a war for over seven years, these communities are being uprooted again, their lives upended, and their hopes shattered. Another generation is being disrupted in fundamental ways, whose bitter fruit we won’t be able to see until years from now.

This is not a victory. This is not how countries that purport to care about the human rights of all people should behave. This is not how stability comes about in the region. This is not how a great power treats its allies. The Kurdish communities in Syria need and amply deserve our support. If we stand idly, the international community becomes a tacit bystander in this unfolding humanitarian crisis. This crisis is both about the Kurds, and also about what the larger international community is willing to do in the face of the devaluing of our humanity.

We urge you to sign the letter. To add your name to the list of signatories, please click here. 

• Maria Bucur, John W. Hill Professor of History and Gender Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington
• Michal Vasecka, Associate Professor, Bratislava International School Liberal Arts, Bratislava, Slovakia
• Jeffrey C. Isaac, James H. Rudy Professor of Political Science, Indiana University, Bloomington
• Jeffrey C. Goldfarb, Michel E. Gellert Professor of Sociology, New School for Social Research, New York.
• Utku Balaban, Visiting Associate Professor of Sociology, Amherst College
• Nazan Bedirhanoglu, Postdoctoral Fellow, Wellesley College, USA
• Irena Grudzińska Gross, Research Scholar (Retired), Princeton University, Professor, Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Science
• Elisabeta L. Pop, Ph.D. student, Politics, The New School for Social Research
• Elzbieta Matynia, Professor of Sociology and Liberal Studies; Director, Transregional Center for Democratic Studies, The New School for Social Research
• Hamid R. Ekbia, Professor of International Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington.
• James G. Hart, Professor Emeritus, Religious Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington
• Malkhaz Toria, Associate Professor, Director of Memory Studies Center in the Caucasus School of Arts and Sciences, Ilia State University (Tbilisi, Georgia); Graduate Program in Sociology, The New School for Social Research.
• Darlene J. Sadlier, Professor Emerita, Spanish and Portuguese, Indiana University-Bloomington
• Andrew Dabrowski, Senior Lecturer, Mathematics, Indiana University, Bloomington
• Leah Shopkow, Professor of History, Indiana University, Bloomington
• András Bozóki, Professor of Political Science, Central European University
• Malcolm Hamrick Brown, Professor Emeritus of Music (Musicology), Indiana University, Bloomington
• Cynthia Wu, Associate Professor of Gender Studies and Asian American Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington
• Paul Eisenberg, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Indiana University, Bloomington
• Beverly J. Stoeltje, Professor Emerita of Anthropology, Indiana University, Bloomington
• Viera Zuborova, Bratislava Policy Institute and SAR Section Slovakia, Slovakia
• Diane Legomsky, Bloomington Refugee Support Network, Bloomington, IN
• Mitzi Lewison, Professor of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education, Indiana University, Bloomington
• Robert Arnove, Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus of Education, Indiana University, Bloomington
• L.J. Frazier, Assoc. Prof. Gender St. & Am. st., Indiana University, Bloomington
• Jacek Kucharczyk, President, Institute of Public Affairs, Warsaw, Poland
• Kadhim Shaaban, Anthropologist
• Joseph Varga, Associate Professor of Labor Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington
• Stephanie Kane, Professor of International Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington
• Chad Alan Goldberg
• Krzysztof Czyzewski
• Martin O. Heisler, Professor Emeritus, Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland
• Sanford Schram
• Marci Shore
• Natasha Lennard
• Izabela Wagner, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Warsaw
• Tim Mason
• Jill Massino
• Jill Massino, UNC Charlotte
• Michael Bernhard, Ehrlich Professor of Political Science, University of Florida
• Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer
• Ermira Danaj
• Elife Krasniqi
• Robert Orsi
• Linda Gusia
• Seyla Benhabib
• Beata Zwierzyńska
• Sami Kurteshi
• Monika Zychlinska
• Jeta
• Dr. Ela Przybylo
• William Kindred Winecoff, Associate Professor of Political Science, Indiana University Bloomington
• Rafael Khachaturian, University of Pennsylvania
• Dr. Luitpold Rampeltshammer, Saarland University
• Jonathan Meth
• Andrea Müller
• Halina Gasiorowska ( Ph.D candidate, SWPS University, Warsaw)w
• Linda M. G. Zerilli
• Tomasz Kitlinski
• Michael Kazin, Department of History, Georgetown University
• Kamila Orlova (Human Rights MA Student at Columbia University)
• Elif Genc
• Lee Brando
• Tomasz Herzog, Professor of Social Foundations of Education and Social Studies Education, University of Maine at Presque Isle
• Yusuf aydin
• Grace Aydinyusuf2015@gmail.com
• Anika Thym
• Arsen Melikyan
• Milada Anna Vachudova, Department of Political Science, UNC Chapel Hill
• Eva Zoumpouloglou
• Beth Holmgren, Professor of Polish and Russian Studies, Duke University
• Agnieszka Koscianska
• Ivett Molnar
• Elzbieta Korolczuk
• Hussein Banai, International Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington.
• Michael Walzer
• Monica Ciobanu
• Ramzi Babouder-Matta
• Rukmini Bhaya Nair, Professor Emerita, Indian Institute of Technology DelhiIT Delhi
• Ian Crooker
• Joanna Fomina
• Joanna Fomina, PhD, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Timo Lyyra
• Chad Alan Goldberg
• Krzysztof Czyzewski
• Cezary Błaszczyk, Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Warsaw, Poland
• Dr. Dalzar Nashwan Salem