Family of YPG Italian martyr: Act now to save the Kurds

The parents and sister of Lorenzo Tekoser Orsetti, the Italian YPG fighter who lost his life on 18 March 2019 fighting ISIS in Baghouz, wrote a poignant appeal to the Italian people: Act now, don't let Lorenzo and thousands of Kurds die again!

Here is the full text of the letter written by Alessandro, Annalisa and Chiara Orsetti.

"Lorenzo, our son and brother, died on 18 March 2019 in Rojava fighting alongside the Kurds and Syrian Democratic Forces against ISIS and the last remains the caliphate.

His story, the story of a young man who starting from Rifredi, neighborhood of Florence, had decided to leave everything, his city, home, work, family, friends... to support the Kurdish people in this fight that has given enthusiasm to many people .

We write to ask you: do you want to abandon who fought ISIS?

Lorenzo has been recognized as an example of internationalist and anti-fascist partisan, who chose on which side to stand and to take part in a concrete way to fight where there was need to fight to eradicate fascism that in those areas had the shape of ISIS and the forces supporting it.

Through his choice of life and his death many people have come to know the reality that is being built in Rojava, in the North-East of Syria, where a democracy is being established, born from the bottom, based on respect for social and cultural diversity, a real equality between man and woman, self-administration, social economy.

Not everyone knows that this reality is called Democratic Confederalism and is a social laboratory that is inspired by the ideas of Abdullah Ocalan, Kurdish leader of the PKK imprisoned for 25 years in a Turkish mail without the minimum respect of his rights and no guarantees. 

It is an example of coexistence between peoples and therefore it brings peace and security in such an unstable and troubled social area, shaken by attacks, conflicts, massacres…

Now this reality, built with the blood of over 11.000 Kurds and 36 Internationalist volunteers, is threatened and could be destroyed.

The Turkish Army and the paramilitary groups that Erdogan supports in the area- that are nothing but another way in which ISIS is trying to represent itself - are preparing to attack Rojava to eliminate the Kurdish revolution and everything it represents.

This Turkish military aggression can still be stopped, if there is a general mobilization.

We ask you: if we have cried for Lorenzo recognizing the beauty of his gesture are we really not villino to do anything to prevent this new war?

Do we still want to take to the streets, protest, cry our outrage and our anger exposing the instigators and the guilt, showing our desire for a more just and human world?

Will the Italian government take position? What about the Tuscany region? And the municipality of Florence?

Everything is needed to stop this assault and it’s needed now.

Lorenzo fought in Afrin in 2018, where the Turkish invasion inflicted thousands of death: Do we want to continue to support Erdogan, the Turkish Army and ISIS in this unfair war providing weapons with our factories and money from the European Union for not opening the Balkan Corridor to migrants?

Many cried for Lorenzo-Orso Tekoser, the fighter, affected by his death, but now he could die again and with him many young Kurds and other peoples living in Rojava.

Don't let him die again, allowing the ideals and the cause for which he sacrificed himself to die.

Lorenzo showed us that no cause is so far and so stranger to our lives and that often is a matter of choices."