The resistance of YPG and YPJ fighters is the main agenda on the alternative May 1 demonstrations to be held in German capital Berlin. The Berlin “revolutionary march”, a traditional demonstration held for years with participation from various leftist groups, is dedicated to Afrin and YPG/YPJ this year.

The revolutionary march will be held in the Kreuzberg district to condemn the Turkish state’s invasion and massacres in Afrin, disavow the German state’s support for the Erdoğan regime and to draw attention to the bans against the Kurdish freedom movement, and the protesters will be carrying PYD (Democratic Union Party), YPG (People’s Defense Units), YPJ (Women’s Defense Units) and PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) flags.

Despite German police chiefs and state officials in Berlin saying they will not allow a march that includes banned symbols, the groups organizing the march announced that the march will begin at 18.00 local time as planned.

The march will begin at 18.00, with an expected crowd of 15.000 people. Before the march, leftist groups have carried out a civil disobedience demonstration to draw attention to the PKK ban and give a message of support for Rojava. Activists went up a building at the corner of Ostkreuz and Frankfurter Allee in Berlin’s Friedrichshain district and put up a giant PKK flag.

The flag includes the slogans, “Support Rojava” and “Germany finances, Erdoğan bombs”. The groups who put up the PKK flag issued a statement on their social media accounts and said that in the march they will be carrying PKK and YPG/YPJ flags against any and all interventions.