IndyMedia - Vrij Media Centrum Nederland

-English translation- original post: https://www.athens.indymedia.org/post/1607994/

Necessary intervention to the misleading information relating to persecuted anarchist Abtin Parsa

On the 21st of October, an article was published on the website of secoursrouge.org, which is the francophone news site of International Red Help, entitled “Netherlands: A militant anarchist is threatened with extradition to Greece”. The article was published unaltered on Athens Indymedia on the 24th of October, entitled: “Iranian anarchist Abtin Parsa was arrested in Holland and is facing extradition to Greece.” The same news with a slightly different text and many references, was published on the dutch indymedia site (www.indymedia.nl), entitled “Call to all comrades, anarchists and antifascists in Holland to solidarity with revolutionary anarchist Abtin Parsa.”

The two articles entail certain inaccuracies, gaps and lies, which produce false impressions and which undermine the very struggles that they proclaim to defend. Moreover, the articles disclose a personal account, which a most basic sense of political self-protection should have averted the websites’ moderators from making it public. Since I am directly associated with this undermining and with the personal account that offers the repressive mechanisms a piece of information which should not have been publicly registered, and even more so I am mentioned by my name in one of these articles, I have the duty to inform publicly about these inaccuracies, gaps and lies. However, it is not at all pleasant to be in a position to dispute articles of solidarity regarding a captive and persecuted anarchist, who is threatened with extradition to Iran, where his life will most probably be in danger.

In order to avoid any misinterpretations as to my intentions, lets note from the outset that having met the anarchist Abtin Parsa through struggles in the greek territory, I can confirm for those who do not know him, that he is a fighter who, following his torture and captivity in his country, escaped to Europe so as to continue the struggle. And there he had the courage, as an anarchist migrant, to participate in a number of struggles, to try to mobilize migrants and to confront the greek state without making compromises for the sake of his personal safety, resisting the passive role that is attributed to migrants, even by a large part of the anti-racist movement.

Abtin Parsa’s words this past winter, spoken during the murderous military operation of the greek state against migrants in the greek-turkish borders, were the least that ought to be said and the minimum that should have been attempted by any social revolutionary. “The most useful solidarity at the moment towards the migrants who are at the borders is to arm them, because the answer to bullets should also be bullets, and this is the only way that the borders will open up for all migrants.” Lets recall the forty thousand rifles sent as solidarity, within just a few days, to the strikers (who were also migrants) in Ludlow, Colorado in 1914. For this public statement, which history proves to be true, the anarchist Abtin Parsa was prosecuted. For this, and for his refusal to give fingerprints (when accused for weapon possession for which he was acquitted), he was deprived of political asylum. We have the duty to resist any attempt to extradite anarchist Abtin Parsa, which would possibly result in his murder by the Iranian state.

However, solidarity does not mean tolerance to an unacceptable forging of history, wherever this may come from. So, the inaccuracies, the gaps and the lies which undermine the revolutionary experience, other fighters and the revolutionary vision, will be answered one by one.

-Anarchist Abtin Parsa never had any relation with the Organization of Revolutionary Self-Defense. Having, I alone, assumed the political duty to continue the fighting legacy of the Organization, I can confirm that Abtin Parsa did not even know about the existence of the Organization prior to the repression operation of October 2019, almost two years after the cessation of its activity.

-Abtin Parsa was never accused by the state for participation, or for any other relation with the Organization of Revolutionary Self-Defense. Misinformation on this point turns against the history of the particular organization. If behind this lie lurks political or personal intentions, then we are clearly dealing with either an attempt to exploit the Organization, or a deeper attempt at slandering it, or both.

In October and November 2019, after my injury during an appropriation action and my subsequent flight, the state arrested and detained a solidarian anarchist fighter and one more person. In addition, the state arrested and charged with possession of weapons my comrade and partner. At the same time, it raided many homes, some of which inside a squatted neighborhood, it confiscated personal and political material and held several comrades for many hours. Abtin Parsa was not among those comrades who were targeted immediately and with such intensity. The raid at his home happened later. But, even though the articles connect the repressive tactics of the dutch and greek state against Abtin Parsa with squat GARE, with the Organization of Revolutionary Self Defense, and with me personally, no reference is made to any events of repression, nor to the story of this operation, except for those that relate personally to Abtin Parsa. While on the weapon-flag of this rebel organization and on the responsibility that I exclusively declared, an extended operation was carried out based on the “counter” terrorist law, the articles refer to a vague relation of a person to the Organization, who has been accused of various minor crimes that have no connection to the reality and to the legal case of the robbery and the Organization. It is clear that the articles are constructing an unfounded hypothesis, burying the real story and the persecuted persons.

Especially, when the publication is made by a political subject, such as the International Red Help, that declares a position of defense of rebel organizations, its moderators should be more cautious. The position of the one who deposits a piece of information, as to the rebel organization that they are referring to, should be clear. The defense of rebel organizations and of the real persecuted persons cannot be merely implied.

Also, squat GARE has been raided by police three times, two of which resulted in arrests and prosecutions, none of which is mentioned in the articles, although the squat is mentioned. The anarchist Abtin Parsa had no relation to GARE during these state attacks.

-We cannot expect of the comrades who posted the articles in the two non-greek speaking sites to be informed of the history of every fighter on the planet. But, the comrades who blindly reproduced this post from the french site to the greek site, if they hadn’t read it before, they should have found a way to translate it, and had they read it, they should have been aware of the events of repression relating to the Organization of Revolutionary Self Defense or at least they should have tried to cross reference the unheard of “information” of the french site.

-The reproduction of media scenarios, which at least in the links referred to in the articles do not seem to mention the Organization of Revolutionary Self Defense, is meaningful when the one who is making the report juxtaposes the reality against the scenarios and takes a stance in relation to it. In other words, these references would be meaningful if the publishers would explain what is the purpose of this repression propaganda, instead of allowing the scenario of a potential relation of anarchist Abtin Parsa with the Organization of Revolutionary Self Defense or with any other rebel organization be insinuated. These apolitical and unreliable references produce only confusion around the person involved, and against the real history of the Organization of Revolutionary Self Defense and of the repression operation that began in October 2019.

-The reference to criminal charges for “participation to armed resistance” and for “terrorist activity relating to armed resistance”, since they refer to the case of anarchist Abtin Parsa’s public statements, are blatantly inaccurate. To be precise they are false. Anarchist Abtin Parsa became the target of a pioneering application of the “counter”terrorist law, by getting prosecuted for inciting “terrorist” activity. It is a fact that faced with this repressive tactic, the persecuted anarchist did not receive the solidarity that was appropriate both as to his actions and as to this new repression experiment. However, falsifying the events is undermining both the armed resistance and the act for which the anarchist Abtin Parsa was prosecuted.

-It has come to my attention that following pressure from repressive mechanisms, Abtin Parsa left from the location in which he was under surveillance. However, without meaning to doubt his intentions (perhaps he honestly thought he was doing the best that he could to get out of the dragnet), the way in which he managed this situation does not in any way correspond to what we call clandestinity, by any standards (in other words, the flight from places where one is controlled and the care for one’s self protection). I consider it an offense to the history of political flight to portray the moves of Abtin Parsa as ‘going underground’. As an anarchist political fugitive from a brutal dictatorship, he should understand this. Even with this as a given, I would not make this public comment had it not been for the publication of misplaced, even false references to the Organization of Revolutionary Self Defense, to my name and to the fact that I am a fugitive.

-Anarchist Abtin Parsa is not a member of GARE squat. He was a member on trial (like all members are perpetually on trial) for a few months in 2018, until the moment he was expelled from the collective of the Squat. His brief passing form the Squat occurred at a time when the Organization of Revolutionary Self Defense had already dissolved and long before the repression operation of October 2019. The participation of anarchist Abtin Parsa in GARE squat is irrelevant to any events of repression, whether these relate to him, or to squat GARE or to the Organization of Revolutionary Self Defense. The reference to the persecution against Abtin Parsa for participation in the Organization of Revolutionary Self Defense following his participation in squat GARE is false in a multitude of ways and functions as provocation. Only the regime’s media have until now the nerve to connect squat GARE to guerrilla activities. But even the connection of the short participation of anarchist Abtin Parsa in GARE with the charges against him is a falsification of the history of the Squat and appropriation of its identity. The fact that the participation of anarchist Abtin Parsa is mentioned as the starting point of his political activity (real or hypothetical) and also of his subsequent persecution, without any mention of when and why his participation ended, is an obscene exploitation of the name of the Squat and of the patient trust and unconditional solidarity that anarchist Abtin Parsa received from the comrades of GARE collective.

-Despite the fact that my participation in GARE squat is publicly registered, since I was one of the arrested persons in the first police raid, after which we collectively defended our political relation to the squat, no one else outside the collective and the persons themselves have the right to refer to anyone’s participation, outside of the movement's procedures, and even then only by taking security measures. The information that Abtin Parsa met me in a squat is politically useless and could be dangerous for the squat, for me and for him. So what if we met? Even inside squats I have met hundreds of people who vanished like smoke.

-The focus on an insinuated connection of the persecuted anarchist Abtin Parsa with guerrilla struggle is covering up the real danger. The incarceration of a migrant accused of even lesser crimes is highly possible, even certain. But the real danger for anarchist Abtin Parsa is not the scenario that he is thrown into greek prisons on the “counter”terrorist law, but that he be extradited to Iran. I am not making this comment so as to exonerate the greek state, but to draw attention to what is not being said in the misleading articles. That behind the criminalization within the european territory, lie the gallows of the theocratic regime. The scenario of the persecuted rebel, aside from that it is unfounded, is perfectly befitting to the tactics of the european mechanisms, which would be delighted to get rid of an anarchist migrant by sending him to the executioners of Allah.

- Anarchist Abtin Parsa has himself named the actions for which he has taken responsibility, noting the importance of taking responsibility regardless of the cost. Therefore, the vagueness as to his involvement in different scenarios is producing something worse than confusion: it creates an impression surrounding different forms of struggle and repression events that serve only the purposes of the state.

“I believe that when a fighter does an action they must take responsibility for this, because this is very important both historically and politically. If we take risks and do actions, we must accept the responsibility for these, if we think we cannot take it, then we must work harder with ourselves and then do such actions. I will take the responsibility for what I have done for which the state has proof, including my public statements and my attempt to leave Greece illegally, because I think politically and historically it is very important to accept our responsibilities and to have a political explanation for why these actions took place.”

This particular statement of anarchist Abtin Parsa and only this, helps us to stand in solidarity, knowing exactly what we are defending.

Dimitris Chatzivasileiadis