Anne Dalum, a Danish activist planning to join the work of Make Rojava Green Again (MRGA) in Northern Syria had her passport seized and confiscated by the Danish state in December last year. Dalum objected and took the state to court. The hearing started on June 17 and according to MRGA, Dalum intends to travel to Northern Syria as soon as she gets her passport back.
Make Rojava Green Again is an ecological campaign comprising activists from around the world, inspired by the ecological, feminist, multi-ethnic and democratic revolution taking place in Rojava in Northern Syria.
MRGA sees this court case as part of a trend across Europe of increased repression against people wanting to support or join the revolution in Rojava, as well as increased repression against the movement fighting against climate change:
“The British government has also recently announced that they are preparing to implement a ban on UK citizens and residents simply being present in North-Eastern Syria, which would also criminalise the participation of British citizens and residents in the ecological work of MRGA and other areas of social work.
“In many countries in Europe, the strongest example being the German state, support of the revolution in Rojava is criminalised to a significant extent.”
According to MRGA, it is now forbidden in many parts of the world to show the flags of Rojava’s self-defense units: the YPG (People’s Defense Units) and YPJ (Women’s Defense Units), which are the main force defeating the Islamic State and now defending the people of North-Eastern Syria from ongoing threats of attack by the Turkish army.
As a result of these legal restrictions, the German government seized 200 copies of the MRGA’s campaign books when it shut down the Kurdish publishing house Mesopotamya in February this year.
“Attacks and repression of the climate strike movement are also increasing,” said MRGA, citing the example of an activist identified with MRGA, who was brutally arrested at a climate protest in Vienna, an incident which was widely reported in the media.
“The German state has tried to undermine the mobilisation of the climate strike movement and justify brutal policing by creating a false division between ‘violent’ and ‘non-violent’ protestors,” said MRGA.
[The book, Make Rojava Green Again is available online at: https://makerojavagreenagain.org/book/]