Internationalist conference on the 12th anniversary of the Syrian Revolution

From the bloodied, partitioned, occupied and plundered Syria

Speech of Steif Abu Yazan

"We will tolerate 12 more years of earthquakes, but not one more day of Bashar's regime"

I cannot open this meeting without calling first for the freedom of all the prisoners we have in the jails of the regime and without honoring each and every one of the fallen martyrs. They fought in a revolution that seeks the downfall of the criminal regime. This regime, together with Iran, Russia and the forces of Lebanon, scourged the entire Syrian people, as they are doing today to the people of Ukraine.

Our battle cry is that until the last of the prisoners is released, until the last of the disappeared is found and until the regime falls, we will not stop fighting for the victory of the revolution. That is the way forward.

After 12 years of revolution, we had the honor of seeing many people on the streets. We have been hit by an earthquake devastated more than half of the liberated regions and caused hundreds of thousands of losses. Yet today, after 12 years, we say that we will tolerate 12 more years of earthquakes, but not one more day of Bashar's regime. This means that the revolution continues, that we keep on fighting.

We flooded the streets fighting for the fall of all tyrants, those in Syria, in Russia, in Iran, in Lebanon. The people are one, fighting in the streets against them. This is the path of the revolution, the path that the martyrs, those who are imprisoned today, followed.

After 12 years of struggle, the people have been demanding more and more. The most important one is the freedom of the prisoners; the political prisoners who are in the jails of the oppressors all over the world, the appearance alive of our disappeared and the fall of all the tyrants on the planet.

We had an earthquake of 7.8 on the Richter scale. It hit southern Turkey and northern Syria, in cities like Jendares, Salqin, Afrin. International aid did not reach the liberated area of Syria hit by that earthquake. Turkey, the NGOs, and the UN did nothing to help the Syrians there. They didn't go in, their aid never arrived, and they didn't send machines to help free survivors under the rubble. Every minute children, young people, adults, and women were dying.

It was only after 5 days that a team of doctors from the UN came in, but they only took pictures. They settled far away from the affected areas and did not go to the danger zone.

After a while, a team from Spain entered the city of Jendares and went to the danger zone. There was also a team from Qatar and Egypt. But they had no machinery to remove the rubble to rescue people and there was very little they could do.

We will not forget how we were treated by the Turkish government, which in the face of this catastrophe closed the borders and did not allow any Syrians to enter their hospitals for treatment. Many had internal hemorrhages and needed transfusions and could not get them and died. 

Bashar claimed that much of the damage and destruction it can be seen today was caused by this earthquake, when he had been bombing for 12 years. They did the same with the missing people, they were the ones he had kidnapped and made them look as if they had disappeared with the earthquake.

Not only did the earthquake bring down the buildings, but also exposed the lies to see who was really with whom. They still want Bashar in the government, and therefore they gave him aid, which was going to the areas under his control, which were hardly affected by the earthquake.

Thus, we will not leave the streets. Whether it takes another year or two, the revolution continues. Alive they were taken, alive we want them back. We want the prisoners back with us. We will not stop until the last one of us is back. 

Finally, a message to everyone. Continue to fight as you have been doing in each of your countries against your governments. It is clear to us that nobody will succeed if we do not unite together as a people. If we all coordinate the struggle, there will be no oppressor to oppose us. The people have the power and they must take it to the streets. We call on you to take to the streets in your cities and to coordinate. It is one battle together. To achieve that, we have to overcome the fears. Let's fight together Arabs and foreigners. 

Comrade Amir here will remember that he was attacked by Shabihas (Al Assad's thugs) on a march in Amsterdam. The regime does not only strike inside Syria, but also outside Syria. That is why the fight is one and together.

Greetings from the Syrian people to all the participants. We thank you and consider you as siblings to everyone who raised our banners. We are one fist, our struggle is one. We will defeat the regime, Russia, Iran and all counter-revolutionary forces inside Syria. When we started the revolution 12 years ago, we thought it was a domestic Syrian revolution, and now we see that it is a world revolution that is fought in every street of this planet. Thank you all very much.