On 30 October a group of Turkish antimilitarists gathered at the front door of Israel Consulate of Istanbul and declared their support to two Israeli conscientious objectors, Efi Brenner and Or Ben-David* who were arrested last week for their objection to war politics of Israeli governments against Palestinian people. -- In the meeting that realized for the invitation of WRI (War Resisters' International) a Turkish antimilitarist, Özgür Bircan also declared his conscientious objection. The members of LAF (Anarchist Activity Lycee), high school students same as Efi and Or, attended the meeting with the placards written 'Reject! Resist! Refuse!' and 'Do not go for service, do not shed your brother's blood'. ---- After reading the declaration of Shministim, Turkish antimilitarists said these briefly:

We, the Turkish antimilitarists, with the invitation of WRI, gathered today to protest Israeli government and give our support to Israeliconscientious objectors Efi Brenner and Or Ben-David. As you know UN accused Israeli government and Hamas committing war crime at Gaza recently. Israeli conscientious objectors do not want to participate in this crime. Wars are meant to be destruction for both humanity and nature and therefore we call all human beings not to go for military service and not to participate in this crime.

Besides we want to conduct our support to all conscientious objectors arrested or suppressed for refusing to go for military service because of their political, moral or religious beliefs. We want Azerbaijani objectors Mushfiq Mammedov, Sakhetmurad Annamamedov who declared will not go for military service because they are Jehovah's Witnesses, four Turkmenistanian objectors, South Korean objector Jungmin Oh and Belarusian objector Dzmitry Smyk released.

Özgür Bircan, who declared his conscientious objection in the meeting, said these briefly:

"I, Özgür Bircan, object wearing uniforms; taking and giving orders; to be obliged to 'learn' using arms; applying this 'knowledge' if required, on people whom I did not know and see before; and to be part of one of the ideal citizen formatting institutions of yours.

"Blood thirsty masters of this world, we are expecting you to the front lines of wars. We, the conscientious young people of the world will not be the participants of your bloody wars, power struggles, we object wars and militarism. I object wars and militarism.

"If we need to create heroes for ourselves, my heroes are these twoteenagers who met confinement at their early ages since they refuse to be part of that ferocity in Palestine. They are the saints of modern world. Our hearts are with Efi, Or and the whole people objecting to participate wars."

* Of the Anarchists Against the Wall initiative
--
Andreas Speck at War Resisters' International
Conscientious Objection Campaigning Worker
5 Caledonian Road - London N1 9DX - Britain
tel +44-20-7278 4040  - fax +44-20-7278 0444
email andreas@wri-irg.org  http://wri-irg.org

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