[Peace-discuss] our alert: ask USG to press Turkey to save Kurds in Kobane

[Robert Naiman via Peace-discuss]

I think Kobane can still be saved. So we just sent this to 100,000 people.

Here is some news from a few minutes ago, suggesting that the outcome is
not predetermined:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29585459

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Just Foreign Policy <info at justforeignpolicy.org>
Date: Sat, Oct 11, 2014 at 1:44 PM
Subject: true urgency: ask USG to press Turkey to save Kurds
To: naiman at justforeignpolicy.org


 [image: Just Foreign Policy]
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Dear Robert,
 Urge President Obama and Congress to do all they can to press Turkey to
allow Kurds to save Kurds from massacre by ISIS.

 Sign/share our petition
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=A6LCzj3mpKi6%2Bb162Ycxn0Xkj36ijn0r>

As I write these words, press reports indicate that ISIS fighters have
captured half of the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane, near the Syrian border
with Turkey. U.N. envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura warned yesterday that
12,000 civilians in or near Kobane face massacre if the town falls to ISIS.
[1] In a very rare move for a U.N. official, de Mistura urged Turkey to
allow Kurdish fighters to cross the border from Turkey to help save Kobane
and its civilian residents from ISIS.



*Urge President Obama and Members of Congress to strongly back U.N. envoy
for Syria de Mistura’s call on Turkey to change its policy and save Syrian
Kurdish civilians from massacre by ISIS, by signing and sharing our
petition at MoveOn: ** http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/save-kobane*
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=KXcsc7CucCyobstnWqIC%2BUXkj36ijn0r>

Here is the petition text:

*“President Obama and U.S. officials, including Members of Congress, should
do everything in their power to pressure Turkey to allow Kurds to defend
the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobane from the ISIS assault, and should
do everything in their power to pressure Turkey to allow Syrian Kurdish
civilians to escape Kobane.”*

UN envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura has warned that 12,000 or so
civilians still in or near Kobane, including 700 mainly elderly people in
Kobane's center, "will most likely be massacred" by ISIS if the town falls
to ISIS jihadists.

De Mistura called on Turkey "to support the deterrent actions of the
coalition through whatever means from their own territory," and appealed to
Turkey to "allow the flow of volunteers at least, and their equipment to be
able to enter the city to contribute to a self-defense operation."

*Urge President Obama and Members of Congress to do everything in their
power to pressure Turkey to help stop the massacre of Syrian Kurdish
civilians in Kobane by signing and sharing our petition.*

*http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/save-kobane*
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=XTyyao3OboDLJpmz83rD70Xkj36ijn0r>

Thanks for all you do to help make U.S. foreign policy more just,

Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy

*Help fund our work—make a $15 tax-deductible contribution today!*
Help support our work to try to make U.S. foreign policy more just.
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References:

1. “Jihadists seize Kurdish HQ in Syria's Kobane, massacre feared,” Fulya
Ozerkan and Sara Hussein, AFP, October 10,
http://news.yahoo.com/fighters-capture-kurd-hq-syrias-kobane-monitor-113638651.html
<http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=IR%2FyqUw9oiHlOkO7weMhOEXkj36ijn0r>
[Note: some English-language media transliterate the name of the town as
“Kobani”; we followed the AFP usage in our petition and alert.]

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