When Seattle-based journalist and activist Arthur Pye visited North and East Syria in 2023, he was stunned by what he observed at an organizing meeting in Serdem, a refugee camp of internally displaced people. Many of the refugees had been participants in the Rojava Revolution — a Kurdish-led, multiethnic, feminist, directly democratic movement involving more than 4 million people — in the…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
NATO’s second largest army Turkey is currently leading attacks on northern Syria that have caused a severe humanitarian crisis. And its primary target is what former British diplomat Carne Ross calls “an egalitarian feminist, ecologically-conscious society” which has been at the forefront of the fight against Daesh (Isis/Isil) for over a decade.
The Canary spoke to Ross to see why he believes this war should be a much bigger news story, what it says about Western racism and “post-imperial arrogance”, and what the world needs to do to stop it.
After the invasion of Iraq, Ross gave “secret evidence to the Butler Inquiry” and resigned his post as a British diplomat. He knew the government had lied, failed to pursue alternatives to military action, and broken UN resolutions. And this experience profoundly changed his political views. In 2015, he visited the multi-ethnic but largely Kurdish area of northern Syria (aka Rojava), eager to find out about the “bottom-up self-government” developing there in the middle of the country’s brutal war. Vice News previously called the process in Rojava “the most feminist revolution the world has ever witnessed”.
Ross described his experience of the revolution to the Canary, saying:
there is such a system of bottom up self-government starting at the communal or the village level, where people take decisions for themselves in a very egalitarian atmosphere which is women-led. Women are co-chairs of all forums, including the system of justice…
He added that:
systems of self-government are often described as implausible in the West. But there in Rojava, it’s actually happening.
And he emphasised:
I think it’s an extraordinary political experiment that’s underway there that deserves to be known about and preserved and protected against aggression.
NATO member Turkey, however, “has long seen the Kurds as an internal enemy” and sees Rojava “as a threat”. The state long oppressed its Kurdish population, and this sparked resistance from the PKK. It has also pushed its allies to designate the PKK as terrorists. But as Ross stressed:
I don’t believe really in designating groups as terrorists, and therefore kind of putting them beyond the pale where you won’t talk to them or deal with them. The PKK represents something real which is the need for self-defense of the Kurdish people in Turkey.
The Rojava Revolution shares ideological roots with the PKK, but as Ross stated:
The Syrian Democratic Forces [SDF], which is the force that defends Rojava, has stated that it is separate from the PKK.
In reality, Ross insisted, “Rojava is run by Syrians for Syrians”:
they’re not a kind of Kurdish separatist movement. They are, as I’ve described, a democratic and inclusive dispensation which is defending itself, has defended itself, particularly against Isis, for the last decade or so.
But if people in Rojava have been a key part of the on-the-ground resistance to Daesh, why have Western nations participating in the fight against Daesh allowed Turkey to attack them?
Regarding the West’s shameful failure to challenge Turkey in any meaningful way, Ross said:
it is extraordinary that the West is willing to tolerate extensive human rights, abusive abuses, political repression, and violent, including violent repression by Turkey, and now attacks on northeast Syria where the the local militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces, have been an ally to the West in fighting Isis.
He called it:
a strange kind of alliance when your allies let you be attacked by another country without response… so ‘ally’ would certainly be an inappropriate term in that regard.
And he explained that:
there’s a traditional reason for that, which is Turkey is seen as a kind of bulwark at the eastern end of NATO, a pivot between East and West, and therefore a vital ally to have in the Western alliance. There is a more insidious, pernicious reason now, which is Turkey has agreed to stop the flows of refugees across the Mediterranean and Aegean into the EU, and the West more generally, in return for Western acquiescence in, you know, authoritarianism in Erdogan’s Turkey.
Considering if there’s any red line Turkey could cross, he added:
I don’t know what the limits of Western hypocrisy are… I find the West’s position on Turkey, and what the Turks have done to the Kurds both in Turkey and in Syria, extraordinary and reprehensible. And yet they continue to do it. It’s one of those… platitudinous eternals of Western foreign policy, a bit like ignoring the rights of Palestinians and allowing them to be killed in large numbers. There’s a degree of racism in it. There’s a degree of post-imperial arrogance in it. The idea that you’re kind of moving chess pieces around the world to ensure stability for your allies, and thus for yourself.
Ross is fully aware of the impact Israel’s impunity in Gaza has had, too. As he stressed:
Turkey will have noticed the impunity with which Israel has carried out war crimes in Gaza. The US has… basically allowed this to happen – indeed, has fueled it by providing huge amounts of weaponry to Israel – and what Turkey will have learned is that you can get away with it. You can get away with abuses and war crimes of the kind that Israel has practised, and that Turkey is now practicing by aggressively attacking northeast Syria and Kurdish regions. And particularly in the dark latter days of the Biden administration, where there’s literally weeks left of that administration, it’s a very good moment to take advantage of the turmoil in Syria to pursue your own national ends, which is clearly what Turkey is doing.
Simply on a humanitarian level, Ross asserted:
The SDF currently controls about 40% of eastern Syria. That’s a very big chunk of the country, and if there is turmoil and war there that will affect a great many people. There’ll be a humanitarian disaster. There already is a humanitarian disaster in terms of the people who have been expelled from the Aleppo region by Turkish-backed militias – the Syrian National Army [SNA], as they’re called… Tens of thousands of people have been ethnically cleansed effectively from the Aleppo area.
Adding to his comment about racism and “post-imperial arrogance”, meanwhile, he addressed journalistic bias in the mainstream media, insisting that:
it is absolutely the responsibility of journalists to reflect the facts accurately, not to ignore human suffering, not to ignore certain areas, not to give different moral weights to different peoples… Evidently, they have done in the Israel-Palestine case, where you know individual Israelis are named and given personal histories, their families are interviewed… but Palestinians are just reduced to numbers talked about in the tens of thousands of deaths. There is a clear inequality between the way different groups of people are talked about, and I think a minimum requirement of journalism is to treat people equally.
He believes that most people absolutely would respond with empathy if that had the full story, and said:
we respond to the suffering of others when that is presented to us. Of course we won’t, respond if it is not presented to us, if it is ignored as is the case currently in northeast Syria, where what is going on in northeast Syria is being ignored in the discourse of what has happened to Syria.
On the left in particular, Ross argued that Rojava is a real sign of hope. Apart from being “one of the only examples in the world today of what a truly self-governing… society looks like”, he said:
I believe it’s a plausible alternative to the way we organize things in the West. In the West, we have top-down government, which is in basically the enforcement mechanism for capitalism, which is basically an exploitative economic system where one human exploits another and where we exploit nature. I believe in a more collaborative, shared economy of benefit to all where we practise mutual aid to support one another, and the concomitant of that is, it’s shared. Government where everybody has an equal say, rather than a hierarchy which is intrinsically corruptible, because when the few take decisions for the many, access to the few is always limited, so that access will always be won by the most powerful, the richest. And that’s what we see in our society today, where the interests of the most powerful and the most wealthy warp the whole system in their direction, and government has diverged from what popular wishes truly would be if they were expressed in a more egalitarian setting.
He added:
And that’s the lesson of Rojava, that they are doing that in Rojava and creating an egalitarian, feminist, ecologically conscious society in wartime. It’s not an easy thing.
Ross doubts that the West is willing to take meaningful action to stop Turkey’s attacks. But he knows that polite requests don’t work. Speaking about autocratic Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he said:
He’s a bit like [war criminal Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu. Diplomatic rhetoric is water off a duck’s back to him, just as it is to the Israelis. You can say you want ceasefires and restraint all you want. What matters is force and coercion. And I’m not saying use military force on Turkey, but tell them in no uncertain terms that relationships will be damaged if they continue in this vein.
Only legislation, sanctions, or other concrete, tangible changes would have an impact. But that’s unlikely to come unless there is massive pressure from voters in the West. This could be demonstrations, writing to MPs, or writing to the media. As he said:
Write to your MP. It’s not nothing to write to your MP. MPs take notice of that. They have to forward the letters to ministers for reply… As much as possible, talk about it. Demand that the press cover it much more. I’ve been writing to the Middle East editors of various newspapers and broadcast media saying, ‘Why aren’t you covering this? This really matters.’
Watch our full interview below:
By Ed Sykes
This post was originally published on Canary.
War criminal Turkey has been taking advantage of the jihadist victory in Syria to intensify an anti-Kurdish campaign of terror in the north of the country. Ten years ago, in 2014, NATO’s second-biggest army looked on from across the border as Daesh (Isis/Isil) terrorists advanced on the largely-Kurdish city of Kobanî.
The resistance of left-wing revolutionaries, however, attracted the world’s attention, forcing it to offer limited strategic support. They eventually defeated Daesh in Kobanî, and across the north of Syria. But now, Turkey is looking to finish off the job Daesh couldn’t.
Turkish-led mercenaries have been advancing their occupation in the north of Syria amid the collapse of the Assad regime. And as the Kurdish Red Crescent said on 9 December, “a humanitarian disaster is escalating in northern Syria” as a result. The group explained that:
In just two weeks, more than 120,000 people have been displaced from the Shahba (Til Rifat) to northern Syria.
Doctors Without Borders is currently “providing critical aid to tens of thousands of displaced people” who have fled to “the areas of Tabqa, Raqqa and Hassakeh”. The co-chair of the Kurdish-led administration’s health committee for the Shahba area, Alia Mohamed, spoke to the Canary about the refugee situation in northern Syria as a result of the expansion of Turkish-led occupation. Speaking from Tabqa, she told us that:
Following the displacement from the Sheba regions, the situation in Tabqa is dire. The lack of adequate shelter is a significant concern, with many individuals resorting to sleeping in the open. The prevailing circumstances are severely challenging, particularly for children who are among the most vulnerable. The lack of access to essential resources, including medicine and food, further exacerbates the situation.
And it seems Turkey’s anti-Kurdish offensive is just getting started.
“Turkish proxies, with support from Turkish airstrikes”, wrote journalist Amberin Zaman on 10 December, “advanced today toward the town of Kobani“. As she explained:
Kobani emerged as a symbol of Kurdish resistance when the town was besieged by ISIS in 2014 and Erdogan appeared to cheer them on, saying “Kobani is falling.” His perceived support for the jihadis provoked bloody riots inside Turkey, accelerating the collapse of peace talks between the government and the PKK and a ceasefire with the militants that formally ended in July 2015.
In short, the victory of Kurdish-led revolutionaries in Kobanî pushed the autocratic Turkish regime to end peace talks with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The NATO superpower had long repressed its domestic Kurdish population. And seeing that there was new momentum for the cause of Kurdish freedom, Turkey opted to restart its anti-Kurdish war.
Kobane has no strategic value, no economic resources, a very small population.
Before the war, many Kurds hadn’t even heard of it, let alone Turks, Syrians or Westerners.
Turkey only wants this city because it did not fall to ISIS in 2014, despite Erdogan’s best efforts. pic.twitter.com/D7nvPeBErS
— Meghan Bodette (@_____mjb) December 10, 2024
My heart is with all my friends in Kobane and Rojava right now. These people have given so much to humanity. They deserve peace and freedom. pic.twitter.com/6cBTmUUGx8
— Meghan Bodette (@_____mjb) December 10, 2024
Turkey has increased its attacks on the left-wing, Kurdish-led Rojava revolution in northern Syria ever since international attention waned after Daesh’s defeat in 2017. For years, it has subjected the multi-ethnic but largely-Kurdish communities of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) to a humanitarian crisis, with a campaign of regular attacks, ethnic cleansing, and illegal occupation.
Kurdish-led defence forces were among the “most effective” ground forces in the battle against Daesh. And they have been protecting the formation of a democratic, co-operative system; one that is secular, feminist, multi-ethnic, and which opposes all religious discrimination. But US and UK governments simply piggybacked on their bravery to claim victory over Daesh before then repeatedly throwing them to the Turkish wolves.
As the Rojava Information Center reported on 10 December, Turkish-led forces killed “at least 31 civilians” in just 48 hours. Having invaded and occupied the city of Manbij, which local self-defence forces had liberated from Daesh in 2016, the Turkish proxies have sought to advance on Kobane.
The important Tishreen Dam has also come “under heavy attack”, and is now out of service due to shelling by Turkish proxies. According to the Northeast Syria NGO Forum:
Damages sustained to the infrastructure itself could lead to the loss of lives and livelihoods of up to one million people in the downstream subdistricts should the dam collapse.
A Turkish drone also reportedly:
targeted an ambulance belonging to Kobani Hospital, near Tishreen Dam, while it was transporting wounded people, which led to the death of the ambulance driver and one of the wounded, and the injury of a nurse and another person.
Rojava Information Center also noted:
Field executions of wounded individuals in a hospital by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) caught on camera, alongside other atrocities
In the early days of the latest Turkish-led attacks in Syria, the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) – “a political assembly representing political parties and organizations in North and East Syria” – urged:
the international community to take swift action to protect all Syrian civilians from the imminent threat posed by Turkish-backed groups, which have previously committed war crimes, genocide, and forced displacement.
It warned that Daesh could exploit the situation, and emphasised “its openness to engage in dialogue with Turkey, rejecting all pretexts used to justify further occupation of Syrian territory”.
It has also pledged “to continue working to establish a democratic and pluralistic state that guarantees equality, justice, and respect for diverse components of the Syrian society”. But it has highlighted “the necessity of addressing… the expansionist plans of Turkey”.
Turkey is clearly the belligerent in northern Syria. It seems to be making the most of the international community’s clear inability to prevent war crimes (see the Gaza genocide) to bully Syrian people into submission. It aims to destroy the only good thing to come out of Syria’s war – the democratic, cooperative, ecological, gender-egalitarian Rojava Revolution.
In Britain, genocide apologist prime minister Keir Starmer has just claimed the UK is “protecting the most vulnerable in Syria” and aiming to “support stability”. But that’s clearly bullshit. Because vulnerable people are suffering right now and, yet again, Starmer’s inaction shows he’s siding with a powerful war criminal ally instead.
Turkey needs to be stopped. And again, in the absence of government action, the responsibility falls on people around the world to spread the message and take action.
Featured image via the Canary
By Ed Sykes
This post was originally published on Canary.
Under cover of Israel’s genocidal crimes against Palestinians in Gaza, Turkey has intensified its own efforts to force an entire population into submission in the last year. NATO’s second-largest army has been destroying civilian infrastructure in northern Syria in a campaign that has left over a million people with a severe water shortage. And as a new BBC investigation documents, this is likely a “severe violation of international law”.
There are a number of similarities between Turkey’s actions and Israel’s. The ethno-religious nationalist regimes in both countries, for example, have a record of ethnic cleansing and illegal occupation under their belts. And they both prefer to use their massive military machinery over diplomacy in efforts to defeat those who challenge their power.
Like Israel, Turkey has long subjugated a native population. And British colonialism played a role in setting things up there too. Around the First World War, the UK and France artificially divided the Middle East between themselves (and the emerging state of Turkey), leaving people like the Kurds stateless. Turkey has repressed its Kurdish population almost ever since.
A left-wing Kurdish-led revolution emerged in northern Syria at the start of the country’s civil war. And its fighters defeated Daesh (Isis/Isil) despite Turkey putting up obstacles. So Turkey stepped up its efforts to suppress the movement at home and abroad. As the Canary reported in 2018, the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal found that Turkey had committed numerous war crimes during this campaign.
Turkey, like Israel, seeks to demonise its opponents by calling them terrorists. Accordingly, autocratic Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan calls the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) a “terror state”. But in reality, it’s Turkey that’s been terrorising the AANES. And the BBC‘s latest investigation has used a variety of sources to confirm the scale of the damage Turkey has caused by attacking civilian infrastructure there. As it reported:
Turkish air strikes in drought-struck north-east Syria have cut off access to electricity and water for more than a million people, in what experts say may be a violation of international law.
Since Turkey illegally occupied parts of northern Syria in 2019, the key Alouk water station has been under the occupation’s control. Two years later, the UN criticised the regular interruption of the water supply to the people of the AANES. This combined with a severe drought to worsen conditions in the region. Then, in October 2023, Turkey’s foreign minister insisted that “infrastructure, superstructure and energy facilities” in the hands of progressive Kurdish forces would be “legitimate targets” for attacks. Accordingly, Turkish planes targeted electricity infrastructure, which cut the power supply to Alouk. It has been out of action since then.
If the Gaza genocide has taught the world anything, it’s that Western allies can commit war crimes with impunity. And that’s precisely the case with Turkey. Because just as international opposition has been unable to stop Israel or hold it to account, it has been equally impotent at stopping Turkey’s crimes.
As the BBC reports, “Turkey carried out more than 100 attacks between October 2019 and January 2024 on oil fields, gas facilities and power stations” in AANES. The investigation includes comments from legal experts. For example, a February 2024 UN commission said Turkey’s infrastructure attacks “could amount to war crimes because they deprived civilians of access to water”. Barrister Aarif Abraham, meanwhile, suggested Turkey’s campaign “could constitute a severe violation of international law”. And lawyer Patrick Kroker stressed that “the indications that international law was violated here are so strong that they should be investigated by a prosecutorial authority”.
The water board co-director of the city of Al-Hasakah told the BBC “north-east Syria is facing a humanitarian catastrophe”. At the start of the BBC‘s documentary, a man says [1:48] “we’re dying here without water”. Towards the end, meanwhile, a woman says Turkey is “slowly killing people by cutting off the water”.
Things have deteriorated significantly as a result of the cutting of Alouk water station. Tankers bringing water in from elsewhere are an expensive, temporary, and insufficient solution. Well owners say that the water levels are down 80% from last year. And there are scenes and words of desperation from the struggling inhabitants of the region.
Near the end of the documentary, a local woman explains that Turkey’s attack “was on the civilian population”. She adds:
Turkey wants to put pressure on the local authorities, to provoke people, get them on the streets protesting. Turkey is using these tactics against us. They use the water situation against us, just like the military campaign.
By Ed Sykes
This post was originally published on Canary.
Alongside all the heartbreaking tragedies in the Middle East, a radical alternative is under threat in the region. In northeast Syria, not long ago the scene of this century’s most horrible bloodshed, millions of people of different ethnicities are building a stateless, post-capitalist, post-domination society. Since October 2023, the Turkish military has bombed Rojava’s villages…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
In the late 2000s, a group of women in their 50’s in a city in northeastern Syria heard a story about a young woman who had been chained up in her home by her father and brother. The women visited the home to intervene, pretending to be interested buyers, and encountered a visibly nervous and irritated man at the door who told them it wasn’t for sale. When he tried to slam the door in their faces…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Turkish airstrikes killed 20 security personnel after bombing a police training centre in Rojava, north-east Syria (NES). It’s part of Turkey‘s latest airstrikes against the Kurdish-led semi-autonomous region that have hit civilian and military sites.
According to Kurdish authorities, Turkey has bombed sites in the area since 5 September. It has hit civilian and military targets and infrastructure, causing widespread casualties. Monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Turkey had killed 20 people and wounded around 50 more. The people were at a training centre belonging to Kurdish internal security forces when a Turkish warplane targeted it.
Kurdish security acknowledged the strike, saying that “a number of our forces were killed and others wounded”. Agence France-Presse (AFP) said that authorities in the area have called for blood donations, while witnesses said that hospitals were full of casualties.
Meanwhile, Rojava Information Centre reported further airstrikes elsewhere in the region:
…
Further airstrikes on Odeh and Gerdahol oil fields, Tirbespi, injuring 1 civilian, Wasel Hassan al-Muhammad
— Rojava Information Center (@RojavaIC) October 9, 2023
The 9 October airstrikes represent the fourth day of bombing by the Turkish state. The country’s defence ministry said on 6 October that it was launching a new wave of air strikes against Kurdish targets in NES in retaliation for a bombing attack in Ankara. By that evening, it claimed to have hit 15 Kurdish targets in northern Syria “with the maximum amount” of ammunition.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurdish-led army for the area, said that eight civilians were among the 15 people confirmed killed in the first two days of Turkey’s strikes. However, by 7 October one reporter said Turkey’s bombing had wiped out essential amenities in NES:
Self Administration in NE #Syria:
All energy, gas, water stations and electricity facilities are out of service as a result of the Turkish bombing. pic.twitter.com/y4yoXdQagi— Jamal Balî (@Jamal_Bali7) October 7, 2023
And on 8 October, SDF general commander Mazloum Abdî said Turkey’s attacks had hit 145 locations including schools and hospitals:
During the past 72 hours, Turkey targeted more than 145 locations in our safe region, including power stations, water and energy facilities, hospitals, and schools.
Turkish recent attack directly aimed at undermining the efforts and capabilities of the AANES with hostile…— Mazloum Abdî مظلوم عبدي (@MazloumAbdi) October 8, 2023
Meanwhile, a coalition of Kurdish women’s organisations issued a public statement to the UN to “take responsibility” and stop Turkey’s attacks:
On behalf of women’s movements & organizations in NES, we have sent an open letter to Secretary-General & various United Nations bodies calling on them to take responsibility & stop Turkey’s current attacks, which are contrary to international law.https://t.co/eJIrFrWCrX
— Kongra Star Women's Movement Rojava (@starrcongress) October 9, 2023
Turkey stepped up cross-border air raids against Kurdish targets in NES and northern Iraq in retaliation for a bombing in Ankara that injured two policemen on 1 October. A branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) claimed responsibility for the incident. It was the first such attack to hit the Turkish capital since 2016, though a similar bombing in Istanbul in November 2022 also led to Turkish airstrikes.
Turkey is a member of NATO. UEFA is about to hand the Euro 2032 football tournament to the country as a joint-host with Italy. And, despite a momentary halt in 2019 on arms sales over its conduct in Syria, the UK is a major arms supplier to Turkey.
Despite committing acts that amount to war crimes, the Global North continues backing Turkey. And the latest round of airstrikes is a very brutal reminder of that complicity.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
Featured image via France24/YouTube
By Glen Black
This post was originally published on Canary.
The Turkish military assassinated Yusra Darwish, the co-chair of Qamişlo canton council in Northeast Syria, on 20th June. Missiles fired from a Turkish drone killed Yusra, who was also a prominent member of the Kurdish women’s movement.
A revolution has been underway in Rojava, Northeast Syria since 2012, based on the ideas of women’s freedom, grassroots democracy, and an ecological society. The Turkish state is opposed to this revolution, and has been trying to destroy it since it began.
The drone strike also killed , Yusra’s deputy co-chair, and the driver of the car, housands of people attended their funeral in Qamişlo.
Again, fascist Turkey attacks women who are politically active & at forefront of democracy & women's liberation in society.
This is the misogynist face of Turkey, which tries to intimidate women who are politically active in the Autonomous Administration in North & East Syria. pic.twitter.com/bG3i4Syg2a
— Kongra Star Women's Movement Rojava (@starrcongress) June 20, 2023
The enemy should know that the struggle started by comrade Rihan [Leyman] will continue at any cost.
This is by no means the first time the Turkish state has used assassination attacks against the Kurdish women’s movement. Zehra Berkel, Hebûn Mele Xelîl, and Emina Weysi were members of the Kongreya Star women’s federation. The Turkish military murdered them in another drone attack in 2020. Last year Nagîhan Akarsel, co-editor of Jineoloji magazine, was assassinated in an attack on her house in Suleimaniye in Iraqi Kurdistan. Jineoloji carries out decolonial dissemination of knowledge in the social sciences of, by, and for women. It is associated with the ideas of the Kurdish women’s movement. Kongreya Star wrote at the time:
the Turkish state has persistently tried to weaken the struggle. But the persistence, will and strength of the freedom-loving women will not be weakened or broken. Our answer will be the victory of the women’s revolution all over the world.
The Turkish state’s attacks on the revolutionary women of the Kurdish Freedom Movement are systematic and long-established. To read Kongra Star’s dossier on the assassinations of their comrades click here.
Kurdistan Solidarity Network (KSN) is a UK group which supports the revolutionary politics of the Kurdish Freedom Movement and the Rojava revolution. KSN Jin, the autonomous women’s structure of the KSN, made the following statement:
KSN Jin went on to speak about Leyman Shiweish:
The statement continued:
The killings of Yusra, Leyman and Farat are part of a Turkish military campaign of drone strikes and shelling. Turkish drones have killed at least 21 people over the past weeks.
The European Kurdish Democratic Societies Congress (KCDK-E) have called for international solidarity against Turkish aggression. They said that the Turkish state wants to occupy and ethnically cleanse more of Northeast Syria:
It is necessary to see that the invading Turkish army has a very serious and clear goal of occupying and dekurdifying the region. It also replaces the Kurdish population by people from other places in the region.
KCDK-E called for people around the world to stand up against the Turkish attacks. People in Suleimaniye, Brussels, and Bern have already held demonstrations against the attacks. You can follow Kurdistan Solidarity Network to find out about solidarity events in the UK.
Featured image via Kongra Star
By Tom Anderson
This post was originally published on Canary.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s win in the May 28 second round of the Turkish presidential elections has sent a wave of concern and dread through democratic circles and the large Kurdish minority, reports Peter Boyle.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
Turkish dictator President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is using the earthquake disaster as a weapon in his ongoing war on the Kurdish people, according to Zerebar Karimi.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
Gulfer Olan, the co-chair of the Federation of Democratic Kurdish Society (Australia) explains that the twin earthquakes that have devastated Kurdish towns and cities in Turkey and North and East Syria (Rojava) but the Turkish and Syrian governments have not been providing the desperately needed emergency aid desperately needed.
Content warning: graphic descriptions of state violence
This week, supporters of the Kurdistan Freedom movement have called for action against Turkey’s ongoing assault.
Turkey is reported to have been using chemical weapons in its attacks on Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) guerillas in the mountains. Videos like this one – taken in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan – have been circulating. Antifa Enternasyonal tweeted in October:
URGENT! To those people that don't believe that the #Turkish fascist state is using chemical weapons against the #Kurdish guerrilla freedom fighters, look!
Take a good look at this video! Dozens of young brave comrades have fallen to the use of forbidden weapons! pic.twitter.com/jK36wdRLig
— Antifa Enternasyonal (@Antifa_Entsy) October 18, 2022
The PKK has been involved in guerilla warfare against the Turkish state for over 44 years now. It is demanding freedom and democracy, and has proposed to replace the state system with a system of federated direct democracy known as democratic confederalism.
The chemical attacks by the Turkish state are by no means new. In October, the Canary published this interview with bereaved families of guerillas who had fought the Turkish state. One of them told Canary contributor VZ Frances:
When I talk about my son who was martyred, he died with 16 others in Dersim. When we found them, there were no wounds. We were able to get only 3 bodies out of the 16 martyrs. They were killed by chemical weapons. When their bodies were found, their eyes were completely filled with blood.
Since the state knows that these chemicals can only be analysed up to a certain point after death, they refuse to give up the bodies. It has been 4 years. There were many attempts within those 4 years, with no response.
However, the reports of the use of chemical warfare against PKK guerillas have been steadily increasing.
People have been tweeting footage of the attacks under the hashtags #WeSeeYourCrimes and #YourSilenceKills. International campaign group Rise Up 4 Rojava tweeted:
Footage showing Turkish attacks with chemical weapons in #Kurdistan #WeSeeYourCrimes pic.twitter.com/ZQGtSRz86H
— RiseUp4Rojava (@RISEUP4R0JAVA) October 31, 2022
In Vienna, on 30 November, hundreds demonstrated outside the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), demanding that it launches an investigation:
Some hundreds of people today in #Vienna in front of @OPCW protesting turkish use of chemical weapons in #Kurdistan and demanding an official investigation. https://t.co/JPnXKLza4d
— RiseUp4Rojava (@RISEUP4R0JAVA) November 30, 2022
Also on November 30, a group of international academics, campaigners and others published an open letter to the OPCW demanding that it investigates the attacks.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s attacks on Rojava – the part of Kurdistan within Syria’s borders – continues. The Turkish military has been engaged in heavy bombardments of Rojava since Saturday 19 November. Turkey is trying to crush the revolution that has been taking place there since 2012. It has already launched two major invasions, in 2018 and 2019, and is occupying parts of north and east Syria.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) released a statement on 29 November, condemning the ongoing attacks. It says:
The Turkish occupation continues the brutal attacks on the north and east of Syria, targeting the lives of more than 5 million indigenous people and hundreds of thousands of IDPs [internally displaced persons] from other Syrian regions. The recent Turkish aggression has entered its tenth day and caused extensive damage to the population’s farms and properties and civilian infrastructure
The current attacks, dubbed ‘Operation Claw-Sword‘ by the Turkish military, are a coordinated offensive against both Rojava and Iraqi Kurdistan.
According to the SDF, many villages in the north and east of Syria have been hit with artillery shells, tank shells, and mortars.
Turkey has been accused of deliberately targeting camps where thousands of Daesh (ISIS/ISIL) members are being held, in order to facilitate their escape. The bombing of Al-Hol camp led to the deaths of eight members of the SDF, and at least six Daesh prisoners escaped – but were later rearrested. The region is now on high alert to defend against attacks by Daesh sleeper cells.
Turkey’s “military escalation” has been criticised by US officials. The US has forces in north and east Syria, and coordinates with the SDF.
However, SDF commander Mazloum Abdi has called for a stronger statement from the US.
Russian military officials have also called for “de-escalation” by Turkey, and Russia has reportedly sent reinforcements to the region.
However, Turkey and its allies seem to be pushing ahead with the threat of ground attacks, with several assaults on the Manbij region – by mercenaries allied with Turkey – reportedly being repelled in the last few days.
Preparations for a full ground offensive seem to be ongoing:
❶ Turkey to launch ground operation
❷ Intensive air strikes across NE Syria
❸ Syrian mp on Damascus, Ankara dialogue
❹ No justice for Kurdish lawyer
❺ Football controversy over Kurdish flaghttps://t.co/GELhbSKPOt pic.twitter.com/vq3qqrKgBb— MedyaNews (@1MedyaNews) November 30, 2022
As these moves by military powers play out, people at a grassroots level all over the world are answering a call to ‘Defend Kurdistan’. Several blockades of Turkish Airlines counters have taken place at European airports:
Today in #Berlin Turkish Airlines check-in's were successfully blocked! #RiseUp4Rojava #DefendKurdistan pic.twitter.com/8qIacJOACz
— RiseUp4Rojava (@RISEUP4R0JAVA) November 30, 2022
Another blockade in front of Turkish Airlines today in #Napoli! Make the war-profiteers pay! #WeeSeeYourCrimes #RiseUp4Rojava #DefendKurdistan pic.twitter.com/HNNWc5iGnV
— RiseUp4Rojava (@RISEUP4R0JAVA) November 30, 2022
Meanwhile, actions and mass demonstrations have been held in many European cities:
#Barcelona #RiseUp4Rojava #RojavaIsUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/ued32SsvVy
— RiseUp4Rojava (@RISEUP4R0JAVA) November 23, 2022
Solidarity against the attacks even came from as far away as Mexico:
#Mexico #RiseUp4Rojava #TurkeyAttacksRojava pic.twitter.com/TKLHiaqPyt
— RiseUp4Rojava (@RISEUP4R0JAVA) November 24, 2022
Demonstrations have been held in London, Bristol, and Leeds against UK arms sales to Turkey, and in support of the uprising in Rojhelat (the area of Kurdistan within Iran’s borders):
NEW
Extended coverage of the weeks Actions on our new website:https://t.co/Wa9UBdbqeQ#DefendKurdistan
— Kurdistan Solidarity Network #YourSilenceKills (@kurdistansolnet) November 28, 2022
Bristol Kurdistan Solidarity Network is holding a demonstration against Boeing on 1 December, protesting the company’s supply of weapons to Turkey.
Turkey is attempting to stamp out a revolution right now in Kurdistan – a revolution which represents the struggle of people against states and against fascism. Those resisting the current attacks deserve our support and solidarity. Check out the Kurdistan Solidarity Network and Rise Up 4 Rojava on Twitter for news of demonstrations and how to get involved.
Featured image via screenshot/Riseup 4 Rojava
By Tom Anderson
This post was originally published on Canary.
Turkey has struck more than 90 villages and towns in North East Syria since November 19, reports Susan Price. Meanwhile, international voices of condemnation are growing.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
Since Saturday 19 November, Turkey has been bombing Northeast Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan. At least 64 people have already been killed, but this may only be the beginning. The Turkish state is threatening a ground invasion of Rojava.
The attack has systematically targeted vital infrastructure needed by the civilian population. Rojava Information Center tweeted:
During its recent attacks across NES, Turkey targeted essential civilian infrastructure extensively and systematically. Turkey hit power stations, medical buildings, grain silos, roads, oil and gas facilities, and schools. pic.twitter.com/E0GOskMXE8
— Rojava Information Center (@RojavaIC) November 27, 2022
While international coalition Rise Up 4 Rojava warned yesterday of preparations for a ground invasion:
Tukrish military are mobilizing to the border regions and occupied territories of #Rojava. There has been repeated warning by @SDF_Syria officials about the preparation of ground invasion. Here footage of a military convoy in the Kilis. #RojavaIsUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/3VeJZ5r7pO
— RiseUp4Rojava (@RISEUP4R0JAVA) November 27, 2022
In 2012, a revolution began in the majority-Kurdish region of Rojava in northern Syria. People organised themselves into communes, declared autonomy, and began practicing stateless direct democracy. The revolution, however, was under threat from the very beginning and has faced invasion by Daesh (Isis/Isil) and Turkey. People from all over the world have travelled to Rojava to join the revolution as internationalists
Turkey has already launched two major invasions, in 2018 and 2019, and is occupying parts of Northeast Syria.
The Turkish state is saying that its current attacks are in retaliation for a bombing in Istanbul on 13 November. It blames the bombing on groups associated with the revolution in Rojava. However, the Kurdistan Freedom Movement has denied any involvement in the bombing.
Campaigners are calling for international action against the new threat to the revolution. Rise Up 4 Rojava has released a video calling for protests against Turkish Airlines:
NO WAR ON NORTHERN SYRIA – Block, Disturb and Occupy Turkish Airlines! #RiseUp4Rojava
Come together and go to the closest airport in your region and block the turkish airline check-in’s!
— RiseUp4Rojava (@RISEUP4R0JAVA) November 24, 2022
Meanwhile, the UK-based Kurdistan Solidarity Network has called on comrades to “take to the streets”:
UPDATES
On the Turkish military bombing of Kurdish civilians in Rojava.
Get active, unite, take to the streets!#TurkeyAttacksKurdistan #YourSilenceKills pic.twitter.com/0mPzwQfELr
— Kurdistan Solidarity Network #YourSilenceKills (@kurdistansolnet) November 24, 2022
The Canary has received a statement from a group of women internationalist supporters of the Rojava revolution. They call themselves ‘Antifa Mala Inanna’ (the house of Innana – an ancient Mesopotatamian goddess). They said:
Right now, NATO [the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation] is showing its true murderous colours. The fascist Turkish state along with its allied Nations are committing a massacre against one of the largest stateless populations in the world. Attacking civillians, journalists, hospitals; targeting directly their guns into peoples homes in small villages across North Syria and Iraq (Kurdistan).
The internationalists called for increased resistance across international borders:
Nation States want us to be silent, complicit and oppressed. In the west state violence is normalised or completely unreported. It is time to stop wondering whether we can make a difference or not, we can; the Kurdish Freedom Movement showed us the way with self determination and now women in Iran and Rojhelat [the part of Kurdistan within the borders of Iran] strengthen their resistance along side us too.
We are all fighting the same enemies, the same Patriarchal, Imperialist, Dominant systems. In Europe we must stand against our countries crimes against humanity, self organise, and get creative.
In an open letter seen by the Canary, the internationalists spoke of the destruction that Turkey has caused this week inside Northeast Syria:
In Kobanê, a hospital was destroyed, a journalist from ANHA, and many civilians targeted. These are airstrikes, warplanes of which they must obtain permission for airspace from Russia and US.
The letter critiqued NATO’s silence over the attacks:
The OCHA [the United Nations office for Coordinating Humanitarian Affrairs] made a press release stating since May this year, Turkey‘s president Erdogan has been threatening a miltary incursion into Northern East Syria. NATO remains silent.
The letter’s authors commented that Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoĝan is up for re-election, and Turkey is in economic crisis. Erdoĝan has repeatedly used an aggressive foreign policy to bolster support at home.
The internationalists went on to speak about the oppression of Kurdish people, and particularly the repression of Kurds by the Turkish state:
Kurdish people have… experienced genocide for [centuries] by all powers that seek to colonise the land and build a capitalist nation state system. They are denied a place in this world, they are forbidden to speak their native language, they are forbidden to build co-operative communities and their women and children are raped and murdered. They are not recognised even as a country on any map, with Kurdistan spanning borders of Syria (Rojava), Turkey (Bakûr), Iran (Rojhelat) and Iraq [Başur].
Kurdish people encounter intense repression within Turkey. At least 10,000 people are currently in prison for alleged association with the Kurdish Freedom Movement. Moreover, Kurdish language education is severely repressed. Cooperatives that Kurdish people inside Turkey’s borders created to meet people’s needs have been declared illegal. And there have been multiple cases of Turkish security forces committing rape and murder with impunity.
The open letter went on to speak about the use of chemical weapons by the Turkish state, and the silence of the UK and EU:
Since April 14th 2022, Turkey has been using chemical warfare against Kurdish Freedom Guerillas in the mountains of the fertile crescent. Against these illegal weapons, they have been resisting in the same place for over seven months from the ground.
October 20th this year, videos from an independent news agency were published that showed directly the use of such weapons in Northern Iraq by the Turkish army.
This month the British parliament discussed [MPs’ calls] on EU countries to demand an investigation by the OPCW (Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons).
The European Union has turned a blind eye to these horrific events, not just currently but for years, for their own profit.
The internationalists spoke about how people have been working at a grassroots level to expose these crimes:
Internationally, young people are taking to the streets to speak out about their countries’ involvement with the slogan, [#YourSilenceKills] and [#ẀeSeeYourCrimes]. Protests in front of the European Parliament denounce the [West’s] silence.
The open letter’s authors explained why the revolution in Rojava is a threat to the Turkish state:
Rojava is internationally recognised as an autonomously organised revolution of democracy (AANES [Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria]). It is an example of collective and co-operative practice. This worldwide recognition of such success is the biggest threat to Turkey and all nation states; if this collective organising is autonomous it does not need the state to survive.
They described the current airstrikes as “anti-democratic”, “not anti-terrorist”. And they said that the Rojava revolution is in “defence of true democracy”.
The letter concluded with a call to “speak out together and stop this massacre” and called on the media worldwide to publish “these stories of crimes against humanity”.
The people resisting Turkey’s attacks in Northeast Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan deserve our solidarity. Follow the Kurdistan Solidarity Network and Rise Up 4 Rojava on Twitter for news of demonstrations and how to get involved.
Featured image via Bristol Kurdistan Solidarity Network (with permission)
By Tom Anderson
This post was originally published on Canary.
Journalists, political parties and movements from Latin American and African countries condemned the invading Turkish state’s attacks on North and East Syria (Rojava) and called for action, reports ANF English.
The pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey has called for immediate action against Turkey’s cross-border attacks on North East Syria and Northern Iraq to prevent another humanitarian catastrophe, reports Susan Price.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
The Socialist Alliance (Australia) released the following statement in response to Turkey’s genocidal attacks on North East Syria and Northern Iraq and attacks on Kurdish populations inside Iran.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
After Turkey carried out intense air strikes on North and East Syria and Northern Iraq in the early hours of November 20, protests took place in several different European cities.
[Video: Firat News Agency.]
This post was originally published on Green Left.
The Kurdish community held an emergency rally outside the State Library of Victoria in solidarity with the people of Rojava, in northern Syria, who are under attack from Turkey. Jim McIlroy reports.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
The Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) released the following statement condemning Turkey’s air strikes on cities in North and East Syria and Northern Iraq, which began on November 20.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
Nilüfer Koç, spokesperson for the Commission on Foreign Relations of the Kurdistan National Congress, spoke at the Brisbane session of Ecosocialism 2022. In the Q&A after her presentation, she answered questions on Ukraine, Iran and Rojava.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
Historian and Kurdish solidarity activist John Tully gave the inaugural Sydney Kobane Day Lecture at New South Wales Parliament House.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
The number of malnourished children in North East Syria has increased by 150% in the past six months, and poverty rates have increased by 90%, reports Medya News.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
The Kurdish-led administration in North and East Syria hit back after Sweden’s foreign minister implied he would distance his country from the self-governing region in order to appease Turkey, reports Medya News.
The Rojava revolution, which broke out with the onset of the Syrian Civil War brought freedom to millions of local Kurds, Arabs, and minorities, and hope to many more people across the globe. But it also showed that the Western left could not be trusted. In the UK and elsewhere, many comrades failed to stand in solidarity with the revolutionary element in that terrible conflict.
As Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on, the same sections of the left are repeating the same cruel, cynical slogans. As in Syria, we must listen to local leftists who are taking a principled, democratic stand in the face of the onslaught of imperialist violence by Putin’s Russia.
In the course of the Syrian conflict, we learned the hard way that the British left can struggle to take a stance on issues which should be trivially obvious. Some elements of the left struggled to condemn ISIS, framing their rise as the sole result of Western intervention in the region. The authoritarian left struggled to condemn the Assad regime, responsible for mass butchery and the bulk of war crimes committed in the country.
On the other hand, leftists of all stripes found reasons to condemn the Kurdish-led Rojava revolution. Some attacked the direct-democratic political project in North and East Syria (NES) for working alongside US airstrikes to defeat ISIS. Some attacked it for coordinating with the Assad regime to ensure continued supply of basic essentials to civilians in the region under its control.
Neither side stopped to look at the other and realise that the situation in NES was far too complicated to fit their black-and-white narratives. Meanwhile, comrades on the ground were sacrificing their lives, and making whatever tough compromises were necessary, to keep their people alive.
I once heard the region’s top political figure Ilham Ahmed tell a roomful of conservative sheikhs who had happily worked with ISIS but were now complaining about Rojava coordinating with the Syrian government in Damascus:
I know how brutal the regime is. They have tortured and killed my friends. But I will sit down and negotiate with anyone who isn’t actually trying to cut my head off.
No one can claim this is not a courageous or principled position. It is easy for Western leftists to sneer at comrades overseas, to wallow in purity politics which get them off the hook from actually doing anything. It’s difficult to do what Ilham and her comrades are doing. Our job is to stand alongside them and support them.
The conflicts in Syria and Ukraine are linked. Each forms a part of the ongoing contest between hard Russian imperialism and the USA’s subtler attempts to remain the dominant force on the global stage. The USA keeps troops in Syria not only because of the region’s paltry oilfields but in order to maintain a beachhead disrupting the Russian-Iranian axis of influence in the Middle East, while the Ukraine war has drawn previously recalcitrant European powers closer to a US-defined regional policy. Meanwhile, Russia’s naked aggression has darkened the skies in both Ukraine and Syria.
There is not an obvious revolutionary third line in Ukraine, as there is in NES. Nonetheless, we must recognise Russia’s invasion for what it is – the bloody and destructive expansion of a capitalist regime. We do not need to think NATO or the Ukrainian government are worthy of support in and of themselves to recognise the need to stand with Ukrainian people.
As such, we must support comrades working to stop or mitigate the brutal invasion – on both sides of the frontline. Like our comrades in the Rojava revolution, Ukrainian socialists and anarchists are not only risking their lives, but setting aside their own ideological disagreements with the Ukrainian state to fight for what is self-evidently right.
Even if they are not willing to listen to comrades from the region when they call on the Western left to avoid “leftist Westsplaining” and ‘moral relativizing’, anyone who sits in their bedroom in the UK and praises Assad or Putin in the name of ‘anti-imperialism’ need only count the bodies.
We live in a world of uneven but multiple imperial capitalist poles, of which the USA is the richest, most powerful, and all-pervasive, and Russia the most brutal on the battlefield. In the Syrian conflict, Russia and its allies have been by far the most brutal on the battlefield, bearing responsibility for the majority of civilian deaths outside of the Syrian regime itself. Meanwhile post-Iraq the USA has adopted a subtler military doctrine of proxy warfare and power projection. Each must be resisted in their own way. Supporting the resistance against Russia does not diminish our efforts to challenge Western capitalist hegemony at home.
In different ways, both the Ukranians and the Kurds have felt the sting of Western indifference, exceptionalism, and – in the Kurds’ case – orientalism. At the same time, the Rojava revolution reawakened a spirit of socialist internationalism in this country and elsewhere. In this spirit, we must stand alongside our comrades making tough choices in Syria, Ukraine, and across the globe.
Featured image via the author, courtesy of the Internationalist Commune of Rojava
Frustrated by its inability to get support for a full-scale invasion, Turkey has escalated its killer drone attacks and shelling of border cities and towns in Rojava, reports Peter Boyle.
This post was originally published on Green Left.
As Turkey escalates its military attacks on the Kurds, ahead of a possible full-scale invasion of North and East Syria — the region known as Rojava — the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) issued an urgent call for a no-fly zone, reports ANF English.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appears poised to launch a renewed invasion by Turkish forces of democratic autonomous zones in North and East Syria. Erdoğan’s repeated threats of military action raise fears of a resurgence of ISIS and pose an existential threat to the decade-old experiment in eco-feminist, multi-cultural democracy known as the Rojava revolution.
This week, Erdoğan demanded that the United States withdraw its few remaining troops from North and East Syria, where they act like a small protectorate for the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, one of the political structures that governs the Rojava region through a system of “ democratic confederalism.” This decentralized system is built on empowering local communities and representative councils that include dozens of political parties and emphasizes the leadership of women.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is a multi-ethnic coalition of militias that provides security for the autonomous region and is backed by the U.S. in a successful campaign against ISIS. Erdoğan considers leftist Kurdish formations within the SDF to be terrorists linked to Kurdish guerrillas who have fought Turkey on its border with Iraqi Kurdistan for decades.
However, supporters say the SDF and the broader Rojava project are building a vibrant, democratic alternative to nation-states as authoritarianism rises in the Middle East and across the world.
More than two dozen activists and academics around the world, including Noam Chomsky, Gail Bradbrook (co-founder of Extinction Rebellion) and former Amnesty International Secretary General Kumi Naidoo, signed a statement of solidarity marking the 10-year anniversary of people of Rojava declaring autonomy during the chaos of the Syrian Civil War. The signatories warned that Erdoğan clearly intends to crush the democratic, women-led Rojava revolution in a bid to drum up nationalist sentiments ahead of a presidential election next year.
“The people of Rojava pose a core threat to any existing government, especially those with imperialist ambitions, by showing the world a viable model of peaceful multi-ethnic coexistence, grounded in lived political, cultural and ecological autonomy,” the activists stated.
Just this week, the U.S. and the Iraq government joined the Syrian Democratic Council, the SDF’s political wing, in condemning Turkey for a bombing in the Kurdistan region of Iraq that killed at least nine tourists from southern Iraq and injured more than 20 other civilians. Turkey attempted to blame leftist Kurdish guerrillas it was targeting for the attack, but the Iraqi government said it has confirmed that the strike came from the Turkish side, according to reports.
“The neighboring Turkish state dropped bombs on civilians amidst its already ongoing attacks against civilian settlements and disrespect for the sovereignty of neighboring countries, targeting the security and stability of the region, especially in Syria and Iraq,” the Syrian Democratic Council said in a statement.
Turkey has already invaded Rojava at least twice in recent years, including a deadly incursion in 2019 that was essentially greenlit by former President Donald Trump, who agreed to briefly remove U.S. forces from the region. Turkey and allied militias were accused of war crimes and forcibly relocating ethnic minorities during the assault. Erdoğan hopes to occupy a buffer zone between Rojava and the Turkish border and relocate Syrian refugees living in Turkey there, raising fears of forced relocations, ethnic cleansing and “demographic re-engineering.”
Turkey and its brutal proxy militias currently occupy two main swaths of North and East Syria, including the embattled towns of Afrin, Ras al-Ain and Tel Abyad. The humanitarian situation in the occupied areas is grim, and kidnappings, illegal arrests, forced evictions, land seizures and deadly infighting between Turkish-backed militias have been documented by journalists and human rights groups. Turkish drone attacks on Rojava, including a strike that killed two SDF members driving in a car this week, have terrorized local populations for months.
Erdoğan is now preparing to expand the occupation in an effort to “clean up” the area and rid it of “terrorists,” according to the president and his increasingly authoritarian and nationalist regime. These so-called terrorists happen to be the same pro-democracy forces that have allied with the U.S. for years in the fight against ISIS. Iran, an ally of the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad that survived the civil war, has warned against a renewed invasion.
The fledgling, non-state democracy in Rojava is not perfect, and a union of independent civil society groups is built into the structure to bring critiques and complaints to representatives in the autonomous administration. Supporters say this Kurdish-led democratic experiment, built on neighborhood councils and communes in a region where tight-knit communities of various ethnic backgrounds have co-existed for centuries, has managed to survive and build for a decade despite adversaries on all sides.
“[Rojava’s] 10th anniversary may have seemed unlikely when the community first formed and their continued existence is testimony to the outstanding resilience and commitment of the people of Rojava, who willingly accept the consequences of their actions,” the international activists said in their solidarity statement. “From their inception, they needed to defend the revolution against significant hostility: Turkey to the north, Islamic State and the Assad regime to the south and Iraqi Kurdish neighbors to the east.”
The SDF warns that ISIS could make a comeback if manpower and resources are shifted from containing the militants to defending Rojava from Turkey. With few resources and international aid, SDF troops guard dismal prison camps that hold the ISIS militants and their families who were abandoned in Syria by their homes countries. ISIS prisoners have made violent attempts at escape, and Rojava is on constant watch for ISIS “sleeper cells” that have claimed dozens of lives.
“We cannot fight on two fronts,” SDF leader Mazloum Abdi told Reuters this week.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Bordered on all sides by hostile reactionary forces, Rojava stands defiantly as a beacon of hope. John Tully reports on ten years of the Rojava revolution.