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Amargi.PL - Action: Open the gate to Kobane!

Synopsis:

The major issue stopping the reconstruction of Kobane is the Turkish embargo. The only relatively safe access to Kobane is via the checkpoint located very close to the city border: http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=14/36.8915/38.3419

Tukrish authorities hold it de-facto closed, allowing only marginal traffic through it. Tons of humanitarian aid, tools and materials badly needed for rebuilding the town, private belongings of the returning refugees are all stuck in Turkey, due to the authorities holding the blockade. No increase in help inflow will improve the situation in Kobane, until this bottleneck gets uncorked.

Goal:

During my personal meetings with people from the Kobane Reconstruction Board and Mr. Idriss Nassan, the Vice minister of Foreign Affairs of Kobane Canton, I heard from them a single clear message: the most important thing to do is to open the border gate for Kobane. This is the first assignment for Amargi network. Our first mission. It will be accomplished, when all kinds of traffic start flowing between Turkey and Kobane in an unobstructed way.

Methods:

It is our job to develop smart, creative and efficient ways to put (and hold) pressure upon all institutional actors, who may make the gate open:

  • -- Turkish government and it's agencies (embassies, consulates, institutes etc)
  • -- Turkish institutions: companies, non-profits, artistic and cultural organizations etc.
  • -- All bodies and institutions of the EU and NATO.
  • -- Local and national media, political parties, national state and political entities, companies having a significant relationships with Turkey.

It is our mission to keep them constantly alerted about the embargo, to hold them accountable for their inactivity in this reason. Ant to make them act.

Context:

We are not going to operate in a vacuum. The Kobane canton itself, whole Rojava administration and a number of solidarity groups and committees are working continually to abolish the embargo. Our job is to find the gaps in this activity and to cover them. To see what can be done better and to do it. To invent new kind of action and to perform it. Amargi is just starting to grow, so our contribution may be small. But let's make it visible.