Action to International Day of Conscientious Objection 2020 

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Ercan Aktaş

Ercan Aktaş, Turkey/France: I came to France in October 2017 and never returned

Video on YouTube channel Refuse to Kill

(15.05.2020) Hello, my name is Ercan Jan Aktaş. I am a social scientist, activist and writer. My fields of work are; violence, militarism, peace and conscientious objection. On 14th May 2005, I declared my conscientious objection together with a group of friends in Izmir. Since then I have been part of the anti-war movement. I took part in the work of a group of war resisters, the Conscientious Objection for Peace Platform and the Conscientious Objection Association. I have also written the activist work I have been part in newspapers and websites that I am an author of, and I’m continuing to do so. In May 2016, the police stormed my house where I was living with my family following a ‘social media’ operation in relation to my activist work in Turkey: Subsequently, 3 lawsuits were filed against me due to my work I was carrying out with my friends as an anti-war activist, anti-militarist and conscientious objector.

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IDK, Germany: Views on our work

Video on YouTube channel Refuse to Kill

(15.05.2020) The Internationale der Kriegsdienstgegner*innen (IDK), a German based section of War Resisters’ International (WRI) in London, supports conscientious objectors and deserters worldwide and demands to grant asylum in Germany for those who refuse. In the past, IDK supported conscientious objectors from South Korea and Israel. Many thanks to Ofer Golany from Jerusalem (Israel) for his musical contribution from "Guns2Guitars - AlterNativs".

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Pedro Polo

Pedro Polo, Spain: We are not soldiers, we are queers

Video on YouTube channel Refuse to Kill

(15.05.2020) My name is Pedro Polo and I am 57 years old. I declared myself an objector at the age of 19 when my country still had not approved conscientious objection. Later, at the end of the 80s I collaborated with the Conscientious Objection Movement in the Campaign for Insumisión. In these years I also became conscious of my sexual orientation and organised myself with other collectives and people forming the LGBTQI ANTIMILITARISTS. I am going to read part of the LGBTQI ANTIMILITARIST declaration, regarding the militarization of the COVID19 pandemic.

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Vadim Damier

Vadim Damier, Russian Federation: There was no legal means to escape the war

Video on YouTube channel Refuse to Kill

(15.05.2020) It was in the Soviet Union in 1981. We had a general conscription system as we still have it in Russia today. But at that time we didn’t have an “alternative service”. Every young man had to pay the state by sacrificing his blood and his freedom for two or three years. Furthermore the war in Afghanistan had been going on since 1979, and the enlisted soldiers were sent straight to this war.

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