On the occasion of the celebration of Newroz, which symbolizes the coming of spring and the rebirth, the triumph of life against death, activists gathered in the morning of Saturday, March 24, at Eleftherias (Freedom) Square (Heraklion Crete) in Crete in a memorial ceremony, in order to pay homage to their own fallen.

“All those who give their blood for Life, for stopping the State of War and Fear from being the future of mankind, those whose blood is united with the river that flows through history in all places of this world where struggles for freedom, humanity and dignity are found.”

The opening speech highlighted the need to explore the importance of collective memory, how they could give to it their own characteristics, so that they can slowly begin to overcome the dominating culture of collective oblivion.

There followed a briefing on the current situation in Afrin, a minute’s silence about the hundreds of fighters and civilians who fell to defend the revolution there, and a speech on the importance of internationalism. Also, the activists read out loud the message of our comrade Helin Qereçox (Anna Cambell), who was murdered by the Turkish military on 15/3/2018.

In a moving and unifying atmosphere, 40 attendees sang Manos Loizos’s song “Tipota den pae chameno (Nothing goes in vain)”; and they lodged wreaths painted in the colors of the Kurdish struggle: in yellow, red and green.

At the same time, the activists publicly responded to the provocative move of the Regional Governor of Crete. Stelios Arnaoutakis, who, during a meeting he had with the general consul of Turkey Oya Yazar a few days ago, in a cynical gesture, proudly gifted to her a bronze olive branch, at the same time when her country is conducting the brutal military operation under the name of “OLIVE BRANCH” in the autonomous region Northern Syria.

As a minimum response, the activists spoiled the facade of the Cretan Regional Government’s building with two blackened olive wreaths, a paste-up of two big informative posters with texts and bold images of anti-war Kurdish protests and leaflets that were thrown around the site which greatly attracted the interest of the passers-by.