Protests in Toronto, above, and worldwide continue against the Turkish rulers’ weekslong bombardment and invasion of the Kurdish province of Afrin in northwest Syria. Ankara’s forces and their Free Syrian Army allies continue to make little progress in the mountainous terrain and against the popular support for the Kurdish-backed government there. Scores of Kurds from the Sheikh Maqsoud district of the nearby Syrian city of Aleppo have joined the defense.
Moscow controls Afrin’s airspace and gave the Turkish rulers a green light for the invasion. Washington also signaled agreement, asking only that Ankara make it “limited in scope and duration.” The capitalist rulers of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey all seek to block their own Kurdish populations from fighting for their national rights.