From the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Oct. 13:

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine expresses its solidarity with the Kurdish resistance in Kobane struggling to defend themselves and their community from the reactionary armed group, ISIS, whose entry into our region has been facilitated and supported by imperialist powers and their lackeys.

Comrade Khaled Barakat said that "All Palestinian and Arab revolutionary forces should unify their efforts to support the struggle of the Kurdish resistance in Kobane against ISIS and their imperialist supporters."

People in Syria, Iraq and everywhere in the region have been under attack by imperialism—an attack that comes not only through air strikes and occupation, but through the support of reactionary regional powers, through the promotion of sectarianism, and through reactionary armed groups carrying out a program of sectarian chaos. They have sought to replace the central conflict in the region: that of the people with Zionism and imperialism, with sectarianism and the imposition of massive, reactionary violence against minority groups who are an integral part of the region, while these same reactionary armed groups leave the Zionist state and imperialist forces untouched. These attacks have been taking place simultaneously with the latest Zionist genocidal assault against the Palestinian people in Gaza. "We stand with the people of Syria who are defending their unity against all attempts to partition the country and plunder its resources for the benefit of imperialism. This is the goal of ISIS and its allies," Barakat said.

"Today, Kurdish fighters, women and men, struggle for their freedom and their lives against these reactionary groups whose presence in the region has been furnished, armed and supported by imperialism and its allies and agents in the region. It is no accident and not mere symbolism that ISIS is attacking Kobane today with U.S. weaponry," said Barakat. "In particular, the role of women fighters in the Kurdish resistance at all levels of struggle and leadership present a heroic example of sacrifice."

"It must also be noted that the role of the Turkish state and government, one of Israel's largest trading partners and a key military ally of the United States, has been to encourage the entry of these reactionary armed groups (ISIS and others) now attacking Kobane into Syria. At the same time, in the past several days, dozens of Kurdish protesters have been killed by the armed force of the Turkish state. The so-called 'security zone' being pushed by France and Turkey, and the airstrikes of the US and its allies, are nothing more than a cover for the entry of imperialism in the region. The only real security can be established by popular struggle and resistance, not imperialist armies and air forces," Barakat said.

For many years, Palestinian fighters seeking freedom have struggled in the same trench as Kurdish strugglers. "There is a long history of support by Palestinian revolutionaries for Kurdish freedom fighters. We share a common enemy: imperialism. And we also share the common enemy of reactionary sectarian armed groups, like ISIS, who are, at their heart, a creation and a result of imperialism and its occupations and hegemony over the region. Reactionary Arab regimes, in particular Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have played a major role in encouraging, arming and spreading this threat to the people of the region," said Barakat.

"No solution or assistance for our region will come from imperialist armies or imperialist airstrikes. These forces have only brought terror, sectarianism, reaction, and death wherever they go. It is the struggle of our united peoples that can confront and achieve victory over imperialism and Zionism, the primary sources of terror in the region, and over the vicious reactionary forces that seek to sustain their hegemony and plunder the resources of our people," Barakat said.

See our last post on the struggle at Kobani.