Listen here to the daily update:
Dear friends, comrades and sisters
Today is the 8th February and we are reaching out to you from Rojava, the heart of the women’s revolution, where live is being defended.
We begin today’s update once again in the still-besieged city of Kobani. Concrete steps that were agreed upon in the ceacefire deal in order to lift the siege are still lacking. The population are loudly and actively demanding the Syrian Transitional Government to withdraw its troops.
Meanwhile, the diplomatic processes surrounding the agreement are ongoing, with talks and discussions taking place between the participating actors.
Ilham Ehmed, the co-chair of the self-administration, reported on these processes at a public event yesterday, emphasizing the significance of this political and historical moment and answering questions from the public.
She said: “There are forces that want to provoke internal conflict. We must be vigilant. The project that has been built here was, from the very beginning, a project for everyone, but especially for the Kurdish people.”
She went on to speak about the goal of securing Kurdish rights through a constitutional process. This refers to the long history of systematic denial of rights to the Kurdish population, such as the denial of citizenship, which has led to many Kurdish people in Syria being officially considered stateless. The persecution of the Kurdish language is also part of this history, and the language issue is now also part of the negotiations.
Ilham Ahmad says: “A constitutional commission has not yet been established, but it has already been announced.”
In today’s update, we would like to focus on the difficult issues in the negotiations. In addition to the issues already mentioned, such as the siege of Kobani and the safeguarding of Kurdish rights, a major obstacle that urgently requires a solution is the return of displaced persons to the areas occupied by Turkey.
These areas are primarily Afrin, Serekanye, and Gir Spi.
The Turkish occupation of northern Syria began militarily in 2016 and reached its peak with the 2018 war of aggression against Afrin and the 2019 war of aggression against Serekanye.
Turkey’s interests are twofold: to destroy the Kurdish freedom movement and to pursue its own imperial power interests. The wars are repeatedly justified by claiming that the territories belonged to the former Ottoman Empire and therefore rightfully belong to Turkey.
Turkey calls the occupied territories “safe zones,” thereby obscuring what is really happening there. The wars of aggression were carried out from the air by the Turkish military and from the ground by proxy militias. These militias, above all the SNA, were created and armed by Turkey with EU funds.
They are groups that unite, arm, and pay patriarchal and fascist murderers, ranging from Turkish to IS fascists.
These wars of aggression have left deep wounds, both ecological—such as the burning and destruction of the olive groves in Afrin, which bear witness to traditions and history, or the blocking of rivers and drinking water supplies in Serekanye—and social wounds—through torture, displacement, and murder.
After the population was driven from their homes, these areas were settled and occupied by these very mercenaries. Since then, they have been places of violence, ethnic cleansing, and persecution, and above all, patriarchal violence, systematic rape, and the oppression of women. These are also the places where the IS and other jihadist militias are repeatedly supported by the Turkish state and reorganize.
Let’s return to the current negotiations.
What is currently being negotiated is very significant. It involves immense suffering, immense violence, and a strong spirit of resistance. At the same time, questions arise such as: If the people be allowed to return, will their homes will be occupied by jihadist mercenaries. If these mercenaries truly leave the peoples homelands, where should they go? Even Turkey doesn’t want these violent terrorists in its own country, even though it was them who raised them.
But still thousands of displaced people are determined to return to their homes and rebuild them.
Especially for the people of Afrin, who have been displaced several times in the last eight years since their initial expulsion, including in recent weeks, homeland is synonymous with resistance. Many have stayed together since the persecution, built self-organized lives in the refugee camps in Shehba or Tabqa, and are determined to return.
The women of Afrin, in particular, are deeply rooted in their land, where they had built a communal, self-sufficient, and ecological life before their displacement. They proudly recount, for example, that the Afrin’s besiegment had little impact because, thanks to the self-sufficient agriculture practiced by women, Afrin was a self-sufficient community.
Thus, Afrin is a symbol of communal and ecological living, and the attacks by the Turkish state are actively targeting the resilience of this way of life.
Ilham Ehmed also expressed optimism yesterday when she reported that concrete preparations were underway for the return of the displaced people. Regarding future obstacles, she confidently stated, “We will find a solution for every problem.”
Here, she is not naively optimistic, but rather resolutely determined to resist.
We wish everyone strength in continuing to defend this communal and ecological way of life and urge you to resist the occupation of northern Syria by the Turkish state and to support the return of the displaced people to their homeland.
With revolutionary greetings from Rojava
