Europe Sees Syria
# Europe Sees Syria

Europe Sees Syria is an international activist campaign that began in Glasgow, Scotland after the death of Alan Kurdi whose image made global headlines after he drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, as part of the Syrian refugee crisis. The Europe Sees Syria campaign works to help refugees and tackling European refugee crisis. The campaign was founded as a Facebook page by Alexis Stearns. Although the activists run a stable social media pages, the overall Europe Sees Syria movement is a decentralised network, and has no formal hierarchy or structure.

## Description and events

The movement began after the death of Alan Kurdi whose image made global headlines after he drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, as part of the Syrian refugee crisis. Candlelight vigils in Scotland were organized through Facebook by Alexis Stearns to show solidarity for Syrian refugees and the victims of war. Alexis Stearns stated that "as a wealthy country, many of our citizens want to register their disgust at how little our government is doing to tackle a very serious situation. We hope that other towns and cities will now be inspired to launch events so that we can send a message from every corner of the world."

More than 200,000 people have signed a nationwide petition calling on the UK Government to accept more asylum seekers and increase support for refugees. The Catholic Church in Scotland, the Church of Scotland, the Muslim Council of Scotland, and the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities have issued an Interfaith statement on the refugee crisis part of which reads ‘We welcome the UK and Scottish governments’ willingness to offer a safe haven to these desperate people. We urge them to back this with practical action to help as many refugees as possible, and we call on our communities to support this and make them welcome’.

## Influence

St Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow hosted "Glasgow Hears Syria", a musical response to the refugee crisis. Funds raised by the event split between Amnesty International and the Migrant Offshore Aid Agency.

## List of events

| Date | Organiser(s) | Location | Attendance | Description and aftermath |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 9 September 2015 | Maria Escalona | Valencia, Spain | 1,000 | |
| 12 September 2015 | Alexis Stearns, Fuad Alakbarov, Marie Clare Lacey, Adam Stearns, Joshua Brown | Glasgow, Scotland | 10,000 | The event took place in Glasgow's George Square. The crowd was addressed by Humza Yousaf, Scotland's Minister for Europe and International Development, who said the picture of Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian refugee whose body was found on a Turkish beach, had “seared into the collective consciousness of the whole world”. |
| 12 September 2015 | Amer Scott Masri, Keefe McKie, Stefan and Kirstin Unger, Mike Lavin | Edinburgh, Scotland | 5,000 | The event took place on front of Scottish Parliament. People attending the Edinburgh event then joined a silent walk over the Radical Road along the Crags. |
| 12 September 2015 | Mairi Stephen | Inverness, Scotland | Unknown | The event took place at the High Street of the city. |
| 12 September 2015 | Helen Malone | Aberdeen, Scotland | Unknown | The event took place in Aberdeen's Union Terrace Gardens. |
| 12 September 2015 | Mairi McTaggart | Dundee, Scotland | 60 | The event took place at the Campus Green of the Dundee University. |
| 12 September 2015 | Savi Maharaj | Stirling, Scotland | Unknown | Scotland's best-selling authors including Val McDermid, Lin Anderson, Alex Gray and Denise Mina were among hundreds who attended a Stirling Sees Syria candle-lit vigil in support of refugees. |
| 12 September 2015 | Wendy Sinclair | Lerwick, Scotland | 70 | 70 people gathered at Lerwick Market Cross at midday on Saturday for an hour-long candlelight vigil to demonstrate their solidarity with refugees. |
| 12 September 2015 | Unknown | Linlithgow, Scotland | Unknown | |
| 12 September 2015 | Jeni Orjeni, Hayley Keane | Huntly, Scotland | 16 | The event took place at the Huntley town square. |
| 12 September 2015 | Unknown | Kirkwall, Scotland | Unknown | |
| 12 September 2015 | Fiona Beaton | Dunblane, Scotland | 20 | |
| 12 September 2015 | Kirsty Gentleman | Dunvegan, Scotland | 30 | |
| 12 September 2015 | Ros Ereira, Larissa Moran | London, England | 100,000 | The march took at 12pm at Park Lane and moved off at 1pm to Parliament Square. Jeremy Corbyn was one of the speakers at the event. |
| 12 September 2015 | Cleo Lines, Emma Ball | Canterbury, England | 12 | |
| 12 September 2015 | Sarah Nunn | Chichester, England | Unknown | A candlelit vigil held on Chichester Cathedral's Green in support of the refugees. |
| 12 September 2015 | Unknown | Birmingham, England | Unknown | |
| 12 September 2015 | Unknown | Truro, England | Unknown | |
| 12 September 2015 | Unknown | Brighton, England | Unknown | MP Caroline Lucas was one of the speakers at the event. |
| 12 September 2015 | Laney McLeod | Norwich, England | Unknown | |
| 12 September 2015 | Micha Streibelt | Berlin, Germany | 200 | About 200 people joined a rally at Berlin's Potsdamer Platz to welcome refugees. |
| 12 September 2015 | Fabien Sammer | Frankfurt, Germany | Unknown | |
| 12 September 2015 | Elena Stelmachenko | Cologne, Germany | 4 | |
| 12 September 2015 | Anni Biersack | Munich, Germany | Unknown | |
| 12 September 2015 | Sara and Fabiano Rosata | Bologna, Italy | Unknown | |
| 12 September 2015 | Unknown | Milan, Italy | Unknown | |
| 12 September 2015 | Unknown | Athens, Greece | Unknown | The vigil took place at Syntagma Square. |
| 12 September 2015 | Aisha Kaur | Barcelona, Spain | 50 | |
| 12 September 2015 | Bel Casson, Creo Kellab | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Unknown | The vigil took place in Quadra Alegria Da Zona Sul in Cantagalo. |
| 12 September 2015 | Laureano Ledesma | Maipú, Argentina | 4 | |
