#rojava is under attack

[black-mosquito]

❌ #RojavaIsUnderAttack ❌

Die Angriffe des türkischen Staates haben sich seit letzter Nacht weiter intensiviert – der Druck auf den Straßen muss erhöht werden!

Heutige Demo-Termine:

📍 Kiel 17 Uhr , Hbf

📍 Essen 17 Uhr, Hbf

📍 Köln 17 Uhr, Dom

📍 Aschaffenburg 17:30 Uhr, Marktplatz

📍Hannover 16 Uhr, Hbf

📍 Wuppertal 17 Uhr, Hbf

📍 Mönchengladbach 17 Uhr, Hindenburgstr.

📍 Duisburg 17 Uhr, Hbf

📍 Hagen 17 Uhr, Elberfelder Str. 25

📍 Bielefeld 17 Uhr, Hauptbahnhof

📍Münster 19 Uhr, Hbf

Achtet auf weitere Ankündigungen (zum Beispiel bei ›Defend Kurdistan‹ auf Twitter).

[nando161mando]

[ritchiepage2001newaccount]

Project2025 #CorpMedia #Oligarchs #MegaBanks vs #Union #Occupy #NoDAPL #BLM #SDF #DACA #MeToo #Humanity #FeelTheBern

JinJiyanAzadi #BijiRojava YPG warns Turkey to stop supporting armed groups [UPDATES]

People's Defense Units (YPG) headquarters has released a statement denouncing the Turkish state's support to al-Qaeda affiliated armed groups ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham) and al-Nusra Front…

RELATED UPDATE: Turkish tanks cross the border under ISIS flag

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RELATED UPDATE: Jihadist captured alive tells how he joined ISIS from Turkey

RELATED UPDATE: Captured jihadist: Ismail Aga Sect in Turkey recruits members for ISIS

RELATED UPDATE: Jailed ISIS member from Turkey: Ismail Aga Sect sent me to ISIS

RELATED UPDATE: Bayik: Turkey's policy on ISIS is dangerous for the whole world

RELATED UPDATE: Russia reveals details of ISIS-Turkey oil smuggling

FURTHER READING:

[leftistfeminista]

– Speaking of freedom, a topic that all women’s organizations especially highlighted in the last period. What would you like to say about this?

–It’s true, in fact freedom is at the top of the demands of all oppressed class. The patriarchal system is imposed on women from home to workplaces, and when they don’t accept the slavery, they will be “punished” with death. Notice that the women on the streets say, “We want to live.” Previously while the demands for how they wanted to live were highlighted, now they say, “We want a world, where we are not killed!”. The attacks on women are at the highest level. Freedom is the need of all oppressed segments in the imperialist-capitalist system. Freedom is the most fundamental problem of all women in the male-dominated system and its our first demand. Our fight and resistance are already for freedom and for liberation.

We must firstly explain that the women who are punished by all kinds of patriarchal methods are not victims, but the subjects that will destroy this system. In every material of bourgeois media, women shown as a violent “poor”. Without action, thoughts; women are seen as a victimized object that is cursed, beaten, abused and murdered. In fact, the message is clear; You will be thankful all the time, if you cross the line you will be punished with any method listed above!

We have lots of duties at this point. What will be our response to this violence, it’s a must that to go to an organization which will work beyond just seeking rights within the legal boundaries. We are not denying or underestimating this sort of works, but we will not be able to achieve true freedom by staying within these boundaries. We cannot break this violence without using revolutionary violence.

KBDH established with the claim of being a united-military-political organization of women that will organize the violence of women which will target all patriarchal institutions. Its currently true that we are not where we wanted to be and expected from us. However, there are objective conditions to take the women on streets to the illegal struggle which will spread the women’s struggle to the next level. Until now, we have carried out actions targeting the institutions of the patriarchal system, we want to increase these actions.

Women were left defenceless, unarmed, unorganized, with definitions such as “naive”, “peaceful”, “far from fighting” and “beauties”. We don’t accept these beauties, because what is trying to be imposed by them is deepening the slavery. Our only demand is freedom. First, we must create the awareness of freedom. Freedom, comes from organizing. Our call is: “Let’s organize, let’s get armed, lets create the united women’s struggle and be liberated”.

– Finally, what would you like to say…

– We believe we have the power, anger and sacrifice in order to do what we have mentioned, as long as we realize our power. Because while we are being taken to the cremation, we are the witches that who walks towards it with smile, and we dare to put our heads under the guillotine in order to be equal. We are the ones holding the positions on the front in defending the Rojava Revolution. We are the fighters/martyred in the mountains. We are the ones on hunger strikes to break the isolation in prisons. We are the ones who doesn’t leave the streets during the most violent attacks of fascism. Because we are women, we will become more beautiful as we resist and become free as we dare.

[heretic-child]

In Rojava, a de facto autonomous region in northeastern Syria, Turkey’s military has been hitting vital infrastructure. Turkey’s bombardments have struck essential infrastructure, including power stations, fuel stores, and food production facilities, leaving over a million people deprived of water and electricity. These attacks seem to be part of a strategy to displace the local population, furthering a policy of Turkification and extending Turkish control over this Syrian territory.

In a notable demographic maneuver, Abdulrahman Apo, a Kurdish political leader, declared that Turkey has facilitated the relocation of 10,000 Arab Palestinians to Afrin, a city in Rojava under Turkish control, altering the population balance and diminishing the Kurdish presence.

Following the Turkish military’s capture of Afrin in March 2018, a strategy aimed at promoting Arabization in Kurdish territories, there has been significant financial backing from various Arab nations.

In 2013, the PYD and YPG formed three autonomous cantons in Syrian Kurdistan—Jazeera, Kobani, and Afrin—and established a Kurdish administration. These semi-autonomous areas were declared a “federal region” by Kurdish and Arab authorities on March 17, 2016. However, Turkey initiated a military offensive against the YPG in Afrin in January 2018, culminating in the ousting of YPG forces from the city with assistance from Syrian Islamic mercenaries.

It is evident that Turkey is determined to thwart the establishment of a Kurdish state, viewing it as a significant threat to its sovereignty, cultural heritage, and historical identity. Consequently, the Kurdish people remain in a perpetual state of uncertainty and oppression, a situation that demands attention and resolution.

[akkoeln]

DAY-X IS NOW! Take action immediately: Together we #RiseUp4Rojava!

To all friends of Rojava, to the press and public:

On the night from the 19th to the 20th of November the turkish fascist state started a new operation against the liberated lands of Rojava, North-Eastern Syria and Southern Kurdistan. With a massive air-operation, the cities and regions of Kobane, Derik, Sehba, Minbic, Zirgan/Dirbesiye and Til Temir were bombed. In Southern Kurdistan, Gare and Qendil in the Medya Defence Zones were also bombed by turkish warplanes. The attacks are continuing right now and the fascist boss of the turkish regime, Erdogan, is threatening the region with destruction, extinction and murder to be able to stay in power and to win next years upcoming elections in Turkey. Since the beginning of this year, Rojava has been confronted with continuous attacks, while at the same time, in the mountains of Southern Kurdistan, the turkish army has been using chemical-gas on a daily basis against the resisting guerrilla. #WeSeeYourCrimes and we do not stay silent! The last attacks show another escalation on the ground and have to be understood as a preparation for another invasion. This why we say: “DayX is Now“ and we call on everybody to act according to that!

It has been more than a year now that we renewed our “DayX – Concept“ and according to that we called upon everybody to prepare for this day. For us it was always clear, that the DayX concept only works for certain scenarios, but what if the enemies of our struggle, what if the turkish state doesn’t act according to those scenarios? For more than 3 years now Rojava has been under attack on a daily basis: Drone and airstrikes, artillery shelling, local and regional offensives by the turkish-backed SNA, cutting off water, destroying infrastructure, through embargo and political isolation, etc. 2022 has especially been a year characterized by this. The international hegemonic powers, such as the USA and Russia, both have given a green light to Turkey to do whatever it wants to do. According to the reality on the ground in Rojava, we have come to the conclusion that continuing to wait for “DayX“ will throw us more and more into passivity and will make us not able to react as needed. We need to be very clear about this:Rojava is at war! Rojava is under attack!This is why we need to see thatDayX is Now!

We also see that at the same time that Rojava and Southern Kurdistan are being bombed massively, in Eastern Kurdistan (Rojhilat) and Iran, the crackdown on the people struggling in the streets has reached a new level and just like Turkey, Iran is also bombing Kurdistan. This situation once more shows the reality of the kurdish people and what they are confronted with once they demand a self-determined life. Everybody needs to understand that those who brought the slogan “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi“ to life, are the women of Rojava, are the guerrilla in the mountains of Kurdistan, are the people of Kurdistan! The struggle of the people on the streets in Rojhilat and Iran, the resistance of the guerrilla and the struggle of the people in Rojava is ONE and cannot be understood apart from each other!

For this reason, we call for everybody to get active immediately and take to the streets! Wherever you are in this world: Show your support for the people in Rojava!

→ Bring your action-plan into practice! → Block, Disturb, Occupy! Organize demonstrations, protests, and get creative! → Join the coming Action-Days from the 30.11. – 03.12. #WeSeeYourCrimes

#RiseUp4Rojava #SmashTurkishFascism

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 7.19 (after 1940)

1940 – World War II: Battle of Cape Spada: The Royal Navy and the Regia Marina clash; the Italian light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni sinks, with 121 casualties. 1940 – Field Marshal Ceremony: First occasion in World War II that Adolf Hitler appoints field marshals due to military achievements. 1940 – World War II: Army order 112 forms the Intelligence Corps of the British Army. 1942 – World War II: The Second Happy Time of Hitler's submarines comes to an end, as the increasingly effective American convoy system compels them to return to the central Atlantic. 1943 – World War II: Rome is heavily bombed by more than 500 Allied aircraft, inflicting thousands of casualties. 1947 – Prime Minister of the shadow Burmese government, Bogyoke Aung San and eight others are assassinated. 1947 – Korean politician Lyuh Woon-hyung is assassinated. 1952 – Opening of the Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. 1957 – The largely autobiographical novel The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold by Evelyn Waugh was published. 1961 – Tunisia imposes a blockade on the French naval base at Bizerte; the French would capture the entire town four days later. 1963 – Joe Walker flies a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 106,010 meters (347,800 feet) on X-15 Flight 90. Exceeding an altitude of 100 km, this flight qualifies as a human spaceflight under international convention. 1964 – Vietnam War: At a rally in Saigon, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Khánh calls for expanding the war into North Vietnam. 1967 – Piedmont Airlines Flight 22, a Piedmont Airlines Boeing 727-22 and a twin-engine Cessna 310 collided over Hendersonville, North Carolina, USA. Both aircraft were destroyed and all passengers and crew were killed, including John T. McNaughton, an advisor to Robert McNamara. 1969 – Chappaquiddick incident: U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy crashes his car into a tidal pond at Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, killing his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne. 1972 – Dhofar Rebellion: British SAS units help the Omani government against Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman rebels in the Battle of Mirbat. 1976 – Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal is created. 1977 – The world's first Global Positioning System (GPS) signal was transmitted from Navigation Technology Satellite 2 (NTS-2) and received at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at 12:41 a.m. Eastern time (ET). 1979 – The Sandinista rebels overthrow the government of the Somoza family in Nicaragua. 1979 – The oil tanker SS Atlantic Empress collides with another oil tanker, causing the largest ever ship-borne oil spill. 1980 – Opening of the Summer Olympics in Moscow. 1981 – In a private meeting with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, French President François Mitterrand reveals the existence of the Farewell Dossier, a collection of documents showing the Soviet Union had been stealing American technological research and development. 1982 – In one of the first militant attacks by Hezbollah, David S. Dodge, president of the American University of Beirut, is kidnapped. 1983 – The first three-dimensional reconstruction of a human head in a CT is published. 1985 – The Val di Stava dam collapses killing 268 people in Val di Stava, Italy. 1989 – United Airlines Flight 232 crashes in Sioux City, Iowa killing 111. 1992 – A car bomb kills Judge Paolo Borsellino and five members of his escort. 1997 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army resumes a ceasefire to end their 25-year paramilitary campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland. 2011 – Guinean President Alpha Condé survives an attempted assassination and coup d'état at his residence in Conakry. 2012 – Syrian civil war: The People's Protection Units (YPG) capture the city of Kobanî without resistance, starting the Rojava conflict in Northeast Syria. 2014 – Gunmen in Egypt's western desert province of New Valley Governorate attack a military checkpoint, killing at least 21 soldiers. Egypt reportedly declares a state of emergency on its border with Sudan.

[amirblogerov]

Kurdish and Syrian military practice joint actions to repel enemy air and ground attacks

Discussions continue on joint measures by the government of the Syrian Arab Republic and the "Administration of the North and East of Syria" to counter possible Turkish aggression. The fundamental differences between Damascus and Rojava on the issue of Kurdish autonomy in the face of a common threat are relegated to the background. Despite the fact that Ankara officially declares only claims against “Kurdish terrorists”, the Syrian government understands that in the event of a full-scale offensive operation by Turkey, there will be civilian casualties regardless of their nationality. In order to prevent this, Damascus, with the support of Russian military personnel, is strengthening the Syrian Arab Army groups near the areas of contact. Additional units are being sent here, new military equipment is arriving, and the air defense system is being strengthened. Under the guidance of Russian military instructors, constant training is carried out, during which actions are practiced to repel enemy air and ground attacks. At the same time, the forces of the International Anti-Terrorist Coalition do not actually provide the Kurds with any military assistance, despite all the statements made in recent years about the "need to support the Kurdish population of Syria."

[beardedmrbean]

https://youtu .be/K1g_vUP5ksc

tw blood and gore

The riots in Iran gonna turn wild if Kurds show up with foreign weapons. Blessem 'em. But as exciting that would be, methinks key to overturning IRI would be if Iran's military eventually sides with the protesters.

My loathing of CNN won't allow me to post a link to their site directly, but MSN has a mirror so I'm good with that.

That's just the video anyhow, sad

try this

A wind of change is blowing through Iran. This wind picked up after the murder of Jina Mahsa Amini, the young Kurdish woman who was arrested by the Iranian morality police because a few strands of her hair were visible under the compulsory hijab. She was only twenty-two years old. 

When her body was taken back to her hometown of Saqez in the Kurdistan province in northwest Iran, the regime ordered her funeral to be carried out in secret. However, it quickly turned into a protest. Brave Kurdish women removed their headscarves, and the crowd cried out anti-government utterances, chanting for Kurdistan and the well-cited Kurdish slogan "Women, life, freedom," which was coined by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and cemented by the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) when fighting ISIS in Rojava. 

The protest at Jina’s burial spread like wildfire throughout the Kurdish cities, with people taking to the streets shouting anti-regime slogans. A general strike throughout Kurdistan was carried out.

It didn’t take long until the protests also spread to Tehran and the rest of the country. Jina’s flame may have been extinguished, but it has lit a revolutionary spark among the people of Iran. 

On September 24, the small Kurdish city of Shino managed to oust regime forces, who withdrew when they lost control of the city. The protesters on the streets were chanting for the return of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), a political party that was forced to leave the country in the 1980s after Ayatollah Khomeini brutally crushed the Kurdish freedom movement, a declaration of war against Iranian Kurdistan and one of the bloodiest chapters in the regime’s history. However, the human rights organization Hengaw reports that security forces have now taken back control and completely militarized the town of Shino. The city has gone on strike while security forces violently arrest protesters, sometimes outside of pharmacies where anyone purchasing first aid is detained and forced to identify the injured individuals. The internet is down, and at least five have been reported dead at the time of writing.

It took Iran only days to retaliate against the protests by attacking the Iranian Kurdish opposition parties based in Iraqi Kurdistan. Drones and artillery strikes hit a school, a hospital, homes, and party bases, with several casualties reported, including a pregnant woman who leaves a newborn behind. 

___________________________

This is like maybe 1/3 of the stories content.

I think this particular protest is going to get a good deal of its goals accomplished, unlike so many other protests this century including earlier ones in Iran this one has a double digit body count tied directly too government forces.

That's gonna go a long way with keeping people angry and protesting,

Hope they get the change they want with no further loss of life.

[fighterkimburgess]

Just read your response to that other anon and I have to ask, if you think it was a deliberate writing choice that clearly doesn’t match with what we previously knew about Jay, why do you think they included it as a storyline? Like what is the purpose of it, I also viewed it a bit along the lines of a way to make Hailey feel that he wouldn’t understand her previous actions to set up her breakdown/panic attacks next week. You always give a really interesting take on stuff so interested to know your thoughts behind the reasons why they included it?

Honestly? I think part of it may have been to prove a point to the fandom. But hear me out!

A lot of fandom (not really here on Tumblr, but on Twitter for sure) thinks Jay can do absolutely no wrong. We saw the way people turned on Adam during 8x10 for the, what, eight minutes that we thought he murdered someone? But no matter what Jay has been involved in, so many people think he’s innocent and perfect, even when context clues and his previous actions have shown he’s not. He’s like every member of this unit, they’ve all done things they regret. They’ve all done the wrong thing from time to time. Some accidentally (Kevin and the soda can in s2), some deliberately (Hailey knowing her CI would be killed, Voight every single time the silos are mentioned), but they’re all varying shades of grey.

But he’s officially not. Jay has admitted to a war crime. To one of the most heinous things a person could ever do. He covered up the deliberate murder (and probable torture) of civilians in a war zone. If you’re watching the news, if you see what’s happened in Syria and Rojava? That’s similar, and the media is quick to call it war crimes.

I think the writers wanted a big dark secret for Jay, so they went for the most awful thing they could. We’ve seen it before, they did similar last season with Bob being a corrupt cop who hid how bad things were until it nearly got him and his son killed. So they said “what’s something that the US military could have done in Afghanistan?” And came up with this.

I just…I’m the first person on the Jay isn’t all good side. The same way I am with every character on this show. I read into them, probably too deeply at times, to work out what’s going on and what their motivations could be. It’s why I’m so sure Voight would throw himself under the bus before Hailey (but hey let’s see what next week brings). But this?

This doesn’t feel like who Jay has been. Even in s2 of Fire when he was undercover at Molly’s. Even when he had PTSD. The only sign we had of something happening was that line with Mouse, “here’s to extenuating circumstances”. I honestly thought he’d missed a shot as a sniper and shot a kid. That’s what I thought. I never would have imagined him capable of this.

It kind of feels like a smack in the teeth? I read a review saying that Jay kept silent, and that’s similar to what Haileys done. But Jay didn’t keep silent. He helped cover it up from what he said. He’s kept silent since then, but he covered up the murder of innocents. I’m just saying, now I think about it, there’s a lot of similarities between him and Voight, except the one thing you can always say about Hank Voight is that any murder he’s committed or body he’s hidden, he’s followed his own moral code for it. Is it right? No, not in the slightest. But he’s followed his own morals.

Did Jay follow his when he covered it up? Who can say?

[nando161mando]

"Respect existence or expect resistance, free Palestine!" (EN: English)

[ritchiepage2001newaccount]

Project2025 #CorpMedia #Oligarchs #MegaBanks vs #Union #Occupy #NoDAPL #BLM #SDF #DACA #MeToo #Humanity #FeelTheBern

JinJiyanAzadi #BijiRojava Şehîd Namirin [UPDATES]

RELATED UPDATE: British volunteers preparing for 'bloodbath' fighting Isis in Raqqa as offensive on Syrian stronghold looms

RELATED UPDATE: YPJ: We dedicate the Raqqa victory to AP0 and all the women

RELATED UPDATE: Syria: SDF launches assault on ISIS remnants in Hajin

RELATED UPDATE: SDF fighters: We are developing new strategies against Turkish attacks

RELATED UPDATE: About the People’s Defense Units (YPG)

https://ypgrojava.org/about-us

RELATED UPDATE: Activists in Marseille will today celebrate 12th anniversary of the Rojava Revolution

RELATED UPDATE: "Resistance flag will remain fluttering under the slogan of Jin Jiyan Azadî"

RELATED UPDATE: Kurdish Detainee from "Woman, Life, Freedom" Movement Re-Arrested by Iranian Security Forces in Mahabad

RELATED UPDATE: Kongra Star on Qamishlo attack: No one can defeat the will of free women

[barri-zonema]

Kurds created local councils - promoted public ownership - as well as gender equality - defeat the Islamic State -  Women’s Liberation Ideology describes jineology

The Kurds have been suppressed in all sorts of ways, often very violently,” said Henri Barkey, a professor of international relations at Lehigh University and adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “They have really suffered at the hands of the four states.”

Omer Taspinar, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said that for decades Turkey has had a policy of “assimilating the Kurds into Turkish ethnic identity, denial of Kurdish ethnic identity and denial of Kurdish linguistic rights.”

Kurdish forces belonging to the Kurdish People’s Protection Unit, or YPG, joined forces with Arab groups and created the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF. The United States, Britain, France and other countries provided the SDF with weapons.

Since then, Kurdish fighters have led the alliance, which was crucial in toppling the Islamic State.

Kurds created local councils to replace government establishments, and promoted public ownership of land, water, and other resources, as well as gender equality. Many Kurdish fighters are women.

Then on Sunday, a Turkish air strike hit a convoy in the Syrian border town of Ras al Ain, killing at least 14 people and wounding 10 more, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The SDF said the convoy included civilians and journalists.

A brief history of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish-led alliance that helped the U.S. defeat the Islamic State

From prison, Öcalan has published several books. Jineology, also known as the science of women, is a form of feminism advocated by Öcalan and subsequently a fundamental tenet of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK).

Öcalan's philosophy of democratic confederalism is a strong influence on the political structures of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, an autonomous polity formed in Syria in 2012.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)'s Women’s Liberation Ideology describes jineology as "a fundamental scientific term in order to fill the gaps that the current social sciences are incapable of doing.

Jineology is built on the principle that without the freedom of women within society and without a real consciousness surrounding women no society can call itself free."

 Öcalan has said "a country can't be free unless the women are free", the level of woman's freedom determines the level of freedom in society at large.

To put into context the environment this comes from, violent oppression of women exists in the region in general, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) being the most radical emanation of Namus-based subjugation of women.

On a wider scale, proponents of jineology consider capitalism to be anti-women and thus jineology to be inherently anti-capitalist.

The bourgeoisie knows no bounds in imperialist and reactionary aggression. The people of Afrin are faced with the most reckless, despicable and immoral aggression.

This is the aggression of wanting to be destroyed purely because of its national identity, as well as waging war against the will of a people. The working class and laborers of the world must be in active solidarity with the people of AFRIN by opposing this aggression.

 AFRIN (as in ROJAVA) is the only people living under their own will in the most democratic form of government in peace and tranquillity.

Since all imperialists and reactionary states stood against the free self-determination of the people, they remained silent in the face of the attacks of the Turkish ruling classes, and many of them openly supported them.

 AFRIN, who wants to be sacrificed to the interests of the imperialist bandits who shed blood in the region, must be protected and embraced by the working class and the oppressed peoples of the world, and must stand and fight against this vile attack.

 First of all, Turkish workers and laborers should oppose this murderous and immoral attack of the Turkish state and stand in the way of these attacks and be in active solidarity with the people of AFRIN.

 The AKP government, the representative of the new imperialist Turkish bourgeoisie, fed by war and racism, will not be able to cover up its crimes by attacking Afrin, nor will it be able to defeat the people of Afrin.

 The Turkish state is a war criminal state. The working class and laborers must hold accountable for this. This account consists of taking an active part in the side of the people of Afrin. Wherever we are, we must stand against the aggression, occupation and war against Afrin, and ensure that the Turkish capital state is repulsed.

All Kurds of the World Unite!

All Kurds of the world unite against the vile and murderous attacks of the Turkish fascist state. Join without question.

Unite and protect your own lands against a murderous state that wants to destroy the most peaceful Kurdish region in the world, the land of olives, the symbol of peace, just because the Kurds live.

 Until today, the only place in Syria that could not be destroyed was ARFIN. This was accomplished by the peaceful and democratic Kurdish people. Because their war is not; whatever their language, religion, gender and nationality, they needed to live together in peace and tranquillity.

 They sent ISIS, especially the Turkish state and others, to AFRIN many times. However, it was repelled by the masterful military tactics of the YPG/YPJ led by the PYD and the support of the people, and the people of that region were able to live in peace.

And just as there has been no attack from AFRIN - although most of it is surrounded by the borders of the Turkish state - there has been no attack or threat against the Turkish state.

 The Turkish state, ISIS, etc. Despite repeated harassment and military attacks by murderous gangs such as people of AFRIN, the people of AFRIN have always extended a hand of peace to the Turkish state. However, a racist fascist state, which perceives even the peaceful life of the Kurds as a "threat", continued to feel uncomfortable with this.

 The Turkish capital state sees the free life of the Kurds and their free self-determination as the biggest obstacle to their desire to become the destructive-aggressive sovereign state of the Middle East. For this reason, it has included the democratic Kurdish national movement in the category of "priority threat" as the main target at home and abroad.

 Not only the Turkish state, but also the US and Russian imperialists, as well as the European imperialists who gave all kinds of support to the Turkish state, are equally responsible and guilty for the Turkish state's attack on AFRIN.

 The German bourgeoisie's prohibition of carrying the flags and emblems of the YPG, which is fighting against ISIS, in marches and rallies, and urgently undertaking the repair of tanks belonging to the Turkish army, showed that it is a part of this war.

 However, the German working class and toilers will not delay in opposing these dirty deals of the German bourgeoisie.

 The Turkish state should immediately put an end to the occupation and all kinds of attacks against AFRIN, and all imperialists should withdraw their bloody hands from the region. 20.01.2018

Finally, they labour everywhere for the union and agreement of the democratic parties of all countries.

The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions.

Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.

Working Men of All Countries, Unite!

Democratic confederacies Kurdish: confederalîzm  democratic‎;  also known as Kurdish communalism or Apoism  is a political concept theorized by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan about a system of democratic self-organization[4] with the features of a confederation based on the principles of autonomy, direct democracy, environmentalism, feminism, multiculturalism, self-defence, self-governance and elements of a sharing economy.

Influenced by social ecology, libertarian municipalise, Middle Eastern history, nationalism and general state theory, Öcalan presents the concept as a political solution to Kurdish nationalist aspirations, as well as other fundamental problems in countries in the region deeply rooted in class society, and as a route to freedom and democratization for people around the world.

Although the liberation struggle of the PKK was originally guided by the prospect of creating a Kurdish nation state on a Marxist–Leninist basis,

Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was initially inspired by national liberation movements across the planet, many of whom were influenced by Marxist-Leninist ideals and left-wing nationalism

As a liberatory framework emerging from the Kurdish movement, jineology places women at the center of the struggle against patriarchy, capitalism and the state.

Allowing the recent developments in northern Syria, Kurdish women have often been portrayed in the Western media as fierce fighters combating the savage barbarians of the so-called Islamic State.

Considering Kurdish female guerrilla fighters as heroines defending Western values of democracy and gender equality, however, frames Kurdish women in an Orientalist narrative that grants political agency and recognition only as long as their actions fit liberal Western values.

 Yet the struggle that Kurdish women are waging is deeply rooted in radical political thought and practice, and as such does not lend itself as easily to a Western liberal worldview as it might appear at first sight.

The Kurdish movement emerged in the late 1970s out of a fragmented Turkish left and radicalized in the torture chambers of Diyarbakir prisons following the 1980 military coup in Turkey. Since its inception it has evolved from a dogmatic Marxist-Leninist caterpillar to a radical democratic butterfly.

 Abandoning the objective of an independent socialist Kurdistan, the movement now draws upon the theory and praxis of feminism, social ecology and libertarian municipalise to transcend the state.

Instead of centralizing power, it seeks to re-allocate it to the grassroots through horizontal forms of representation. Inspired in part by the American communalist theorist  Murray Bookchin, the Kurdish movement has clearly articulated its aspirations for a post-capitalist and post-state society and has begun to implement these ideas in the Kurdish autonomous regions of Rojava, in northern Syria.

 The struggle for gender equality stands at the heart of the Kurdish movement’s vision for a just society.

Locating the historical root of social, economic and cultural oppression and injustice in the emergence of gender hierarchies in the Neolithic era, Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader and chief theorist of the Kurdish movement, proposes a direct relation between gender hierarchies and state formation.

Referring to women as “the first colony,” Öcalan argues that the nation-state, monotheistic religions and capitalism all constitute different institutionalized forms of the dominant male. Fighting patriarchal social structures ― or, in Öcalan’s words, “killing the dominant male” ― consequently becomes an imperative in the struggle for a society that will transcend the oppressive structures of the capitalist nation-state.

 Within this struggle, the Kurdish paradigm stresses the importance of an enduring transformation of both social and personal mentalities; a term that resonates with the Foucauldian concept of discourse as an encompassing formation of thought, while stressing its rootedness in practice and hence underlining the need for an antagonistic struggle in order to achieve lasting change.

In a framework that rethinks the boundaries of citizenship, the classical Marxist focus on class struggle is in this way broadened to take into account other forms of oppression.

The liberation of women takes on a pivotal role both for theoretical reflection on social reality and for practical efforts undertaken towards radically changing that reality.

The movement asserts that for the social struggle to be successful, it is vital to fully comprehend the links between capitalist, statist and gender oppression.

Taking into account insights from both anti-colonial and anti-capitalist resistance movements of the twentieth century, the understanding of struggle itself is thus fundamentally reformulated.

 Jineology, a framework of radical feminist analysis that the Kurdish movement has been developing since 2008, tries to transfer the advancements of the Kurdish women’s movement into society.

A neologism derived from the Kurdish word for woman, jin, jineology criticizes how the positivistic sciences have monopolized all forms of power in the hands of men.

As a theoretical paradigm, it is based on the concrete experiences of Kurdish women facing both patriarchal and colonial oppression. Using this new perspective, jineology seeks to develop an alternative methodology for the existing social sciences that stands in contrast to androcentric knowledge systems.

 At the same time, it also articulates a powerful critique of Western feminism. According to Dilar Dirik, an academic and advocate of jineology, the feminist deconstruction of gender roles has contributed immensely to our understanding of sexism.

Nevertheless, jineology remains critical towards the failure of Western feminism to build an alternative. It criticizes mainstream feminism’s failure to achieve wider social change by limiting the framework of the persisting order.

Intersectional feminism addresses these issues, underlining the observation that forms of oppression are interlinked and that feminism needs to take a holistic approach to tackle them. Yet according to the Kurdish movement, the problem is that these debates never leave the circles of academia. Jineology proposes itself as a method to explore these questions in a collectivist manner. As such, jineology can be seen as the living practice that evolved from the discussions of women all over Kurdistan.

 Necîbe Qeredaxî has been a journalist and advocate for Kurdish rights for eighteen years. She is a founding member of a research center for jineology in Brussels, which will soon open its doors to the public. The aim of the organization is the promotion of research in the human and social sciences that concerns women’s emancipation.

The center will be organizing seminars and workshops, will carry out research on gender violence and women’s oppression, and seeks to reach out to feminist movements in Belgium and beyond.

 What is jineology and what does it struggle for?

Necîbe Qeredaxî: The term jineology is composed of two words: jin, the Kurdish word for “woman,” and logos, Greek for “word” or “reason.” So it is the science or the study of women.

What is jineology, for those hearing about it for the first time? Jineology is both an outcome and a beginning. It is the outcome of the dialectical progress of the Kurdish women’s movement, as well as a beginning to respond to the contradictions and problems of modern society, economics, health, education, ecology, ethics and aesthetics.

While the social sciences have dealt with these issues, they remain influenced by the reigning hegemony and have distorted the issues at hand, particularly the relations between men and women. Jineology therefore proposes a new analysis of these fields.

Turkish government to establish the idea of centralization was to attract the Kurds to participate in parliament. The government was on occasion, successful in this regard and some Kurds did take seats in the national parliament.

To change Kurdish attitudes towards centralization the CUP allowed some Kurds to establish themselves and take up senior roles within the party. It was not long after the implementation of

Turkey's constitution when the freedom of the smaller ethnic communities in Turkey was restricted and outlawed. Turkish state ideology as a tool for persuading and assimilating the Kurds and other ethnic and linguistic groups.

Existing studies emphasize that the Kurds were subjected to a systematic forced assimilation campaign by the new Kemalist state.

This paper stresses that the formation of Turkey after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire is the root to understanding the ideological foundation of the Turkish state’s denial of the Kurds, their history, language and even their existence.

This has huge implications for Turkey’s claims to secular democracy, its regional stature and aspirations to join the

European Union.House raids in Diyarbakır and Adana: Many detentions

At least 59 people, including Jinnews reporter Beritan Canözer, were detained in a house raid in Diyarbakır August 13, 2021As part of an investigation conducted by the Adana Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, many houses were raided. In the raid on 29 addresses within the scope of the investigation, the doors of the houses were broken with rams, and the belongings in the houses were distributed during the searches.

It was stated that many people were detained in house raids and searches continued in many houses.

It was stated that 59 people, including Jinnews reporter Beritan Canözer, were detained in the raids before 15 August on charges of "making propaganda for a terrorist organization" and "acting on behalf of a terrorist organization", and that the number of detentions will increase.

The detainees were taken to Diyarbakır Provincial Security Directorate after their health checks.I am appealing to those who demand education in their mother tongue. You can open language schools wherever you want to teach your mother tongue.

But do not request education in the mother tongue from us because the official language of Turkey is Turkish. Do not attempt to exploit this issue. I underline that these moves aim to divide our country (Today’s Zaman 2011).

The arguments from both the MHP party and also the ruling party AKP simply contend that education in mother tongue for Kurds cannot be made possible as it would divide the country.

Thus, one can observe a temporal discussion, where the discussion of fear and separatism from the past is still used in the present.

In a similar speech Erdogan states the impossibility of mother tongue education in Turkey by arguing that the request for education in mother tongue derives from the PKK  (Haksoz Haber 2012).

He does not reference the requests of legitimate political parties(such as those mentioned before by the BDP and their one million signature petition) or

Turkey arrests pro-Kurdish MP who was expelled from parliament

Turkish authorities on Sunday arrested a pro-Kurdish opposition MP who had refused to leave parliament for several days after his seat was revoked, his party said.

Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu “was brought out by force while he was in pyjamas and slippers” by “nearly 100 police officers”, the leftist Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said in a statement.

His remark referred to a decade marked by a flaring of the Kurdish conflict in southeastern Turkey, when several pro-Kurdish MPs were arrested.

 The HDP, the third largest party in the Turkish parliament, has been under a constant crackdown since 2016 with the arrest of several of its lawmakers and leaders, including its charismatic co-chair Selahattin Demirtas.

 Demirtas – a two-time rival to incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan in presidential elections – has been kept in detention since 2016 despite calls from European Court of Human Rights demanding his release.

 The top public prosecutor in Ankara had on Wednesday demanded that the HDP be dissolved over its alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

 The PKK has been waging an insurgency since 1984 that has killed tens of thousands and is listed as a terrorist organisation by Ankara and its Western allies.

The HDP has seen dozens of its mayors dismissed over alleged terror links. Western powers have universally condemned the bid to shut down the HDP. The country’s highest court is due to rule on the case in the coming weeks.

EU ‘deeply concerned,’ condemns move to ban Turkey pro-Kurdish party

The European Union on Thursday said it was “deeply concerned” about attempts to shut down Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish opposition party, warning the move heightens worries over “backsliding” by Ankara.

The criticism from Brussels comes a day before EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel hold video talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Closing the second largest opposition party would violate the rights of millions of voters in Turkey,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and enlargement commissioner Oliver Varhelyi said in a statement.

 “It adds to the EU’s concerns regarding the backsliding in fundamental rights in Turkey and undermines the credibility of the Turkish authorities’ stated commitment to reforms.”

The statement insisted that Ankara “urgently needs to respect its core democratic obligations, including respect for democracy, human rights and the rule of law.”

Leyla Zana (born 3 May 1961) is a Kurdish politician in Turkey who was imprisoned for ten years for her political activism, which was deemed by the Turkish courts to be against the unity of the country.

She was awarded the 1995 Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament, but was unable to collect it until her release in 2004. She was also awarded the Rafto Prize in 1994 after being recognized by the Rafto Foundation for being incarcerated for her peaceful struggle for the human rights of the Kurdish people in Turkey and the neighbouring countries.[1]

A Turkish court has sentenced a Kurdish former lawmaker, who shot to fame for a months-long hunger strike two years ago, to more than 22 years in jail on terror-related charges.

 Leyla Guven, an opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy who was stripped of her parliamentary immunity in June, was convicted of membership of a “terror group” and disseminating “terror propaganda” for outlawed Kurdish armed groups.

RBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – A Turkish court in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir on Thursday upheld a previously reversed conviction for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker Abdullah Zeydan, sentencing him to eight years, one month, and 15 days in prison.

Authorities already hold him along with HDP’s Co-leader Selahattin Demirtas in a supermax prison in the northwestern city of Edirne since late 2016.MP Zeydan of Hakkari was being tried for the second time after a regional higher court in the city of Gaziantep overturned the same sentence three months ago.

Prosecutors accused him of “aiding a terrorist organization and disseminating its propaganda,” Kurdistan 24’s Diyarbakir bureau reported.We see high levels of very rough policing in Turkey today, police violence toward people such as student demonstrators, but in general a security establishment that feels it has gained the upper hand and is not curbed by laws or regulations that it cannot circumvent. The climate of impunity prevails.”

 Last month, a top prosecutor applied to the Constitutional Court with an indictment to shut down the HDP, but the indictment was recently sent back to the prosecutor over procedural shortcomings. It is likely to be re-submitted after making required changes.

Turkish opposition MP Gergerlioglu hospitalized, then jailed.Human Rights Watch calls for investigation into MP’s arrest, which put him into hospital before his transfer to prison.

“Inside Turkey’s prisons the conditions for political prisoners are becoming increasingly barbaric.” Kate Osborne MP

Last week in Parliament, I highlighted the increasingly authoritarian policies of President Erdoğan and the Turkish Government during a Westminster Hall Debate on the Arrest of Opposition Politicians in Turkey.

 Extreme repression and the decline of democracy has been a concern in Turkey since the peace talks broke down in 2015 between the Kurds and President Erdoğan, and the failed coup in July 2016 by a faction of the Turkish armed forces. Since these events, we have seen a war being waged against the Kurdish population and an outrageous aggressive foreign policy being pursued in Syria, Libya, Iraq and Azerbaijan.

 As things stand, President Erdoğan and his far-right regime are engaged in a campaign of annihilation against the main opposition party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which is majority Kurdish, dragging Turkey into further political polarisation, social turmoil, and economic instability.

It has led to tens of thousands of journalists, trade unionists, teachers, opposition politicians, human rights activists, women’s activists, and countless others being jailed and/or dismissed from their jobs.

 HDP activists and politicians have suffered continuous harassment, arrests, and imprisonment, including over 700 arrests on 15 February this year. They are arrested under the guise of ‘belonging to a terrorist organisation’, or ‘promotion of a terrorist group’.

It has led to the party’s leaders all receiving lengthy prison sentences and elected MPs and local politicians arrested and replaced with the Government’s appointed trustees. It is now looking increasingly likely that the ongoing political and legal onslaught on the HDP may well result in the party being banned.

 Inside Turkey’s prisons the conditions for political prisoners at the hands of this brutal regime are becoming increasingly barbaric.

Kurdish and HDP prisoners are often purposely placed miles away from home in nationalist areas.

There is little access to healthcare for these political prisoners and they were the only category of prisoner that were refused release to stop the spread of covid-19.

Selahattin Demirtaş: the trial of the man who wanted to be Turkey’s president.  After more than four years of being held in a pre-trial detention that the ECHR ruled ‘unlawful’, Demirtaş is due to have his next trial hearing tomorrow

For more than four years, Selahattin Demirtaş, the writer and former co-chair of Turkey’s People’s Democratic Party (HDP), who in 2014 and 2018 ran in the country’s presidential elections, has been held in pre-trial detention on multiple terror-related charges. In December last year, the European Court of Human Rights found his detention to be unlawful and ordered his release. On 6 May, he will face his next hearing.

Selahattin Demirtaş granted Weimar Human Rights Award

Selahattin Demirtaş, the jailed former Co-Chair of the HDP, has been granted the 2021 Weimar Human Rights Award on the grounds that he was “one of the most important opposition politicians in Turkey’s recent history.”As for the other politicians from Turkey granted the award, HDP Adana MP and lawyer Meral Danış Beştaş received it in 1998.Selahattin Demirtaş was born in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Diyarbakır in 1973.

He graduated from the Faculty of Law of Ankara University. He worked as a self-employed lawyer.

 He was the Executive Board Member and Branch Chair of the Human Rights Association (İHD) Diyarbakır Branch. When Demirtaş was its Chair, the Association's policy was oriented towards addressing the unidentified murders. In the same period, he was also among the founders of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV-HRFT) and Amnesty International Diyarbakır.

 He held executive positions in the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV-HRFT) and Amnesty International Turkey.

 Entering politics at the Democratic Society Party (DTP) in 2007, Demirtaş was elected an MP in the 23rd Legislative Session. He joined the DTP group at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) and was the Parliamentary group deputy chair. After the DTP was closed in 2009, he and Gültan Kışanak were elected the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Co-Chairs.

 At the General Elections in 2011, he was elected the Hakkari MP of the Labor, Democracy and Freedom Bloc in the 24th Legislative Session.

 BDP Co-Chair during the Resolution Process for the Kurdish Questions, Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ were elected the Co-Chairs of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) on June 22, 2014.

 Running for President at the Presidential Election on August 10, 2014, Demirtaş was elected an MP at both June 7 and November 1 elections in 2015.

 After the legislative immunity of several lawmakers facing summaries of proceedings were lifted on May 20, 2016, over 90 files about Demirtaş were sent to the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.

 Stripped of his MP status and arrested, Selahattin Demirtaş faces two aggravated life sentences and 486 years in prison in total. His convictions in other cases have also become final.

Journalist Hikmet Tunç sentenced to 8 months, 22 days in prison

Put on trial for “insulting” the trustee appointed to the Muradiye District Municipality in her news report, Hikmet Tunç, the Van reporter for JinNews women’s news agency, has been sentenced to 8 months, 22 days in prison.

Imprisoned former HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş has made a statement about the deadly racist attack against a Kurdish family in Konya: “The main reason behind this massacre, tension and conflicts is the discriminatory policies of the government.”

Unfortunately, the main reason behind this massacre, tension and conflicts is the discriminatory policies of the government, its targeting language and the dirty calculations of the gangs, inside and outside the state, who are encouraged by this.

  My humble recommendation to our entire people, Turkish and Kurdish, is the following: Don't give credence or bow down to the language of hate and discriminatory policies. Let's act with wisdom and patience regardless of the circumstances. Let's turn to the collective conscience that we will create together, not to rage.

"We are working hard for an environment where the law works and justice prevails. For this reason, let's be calm and don't feel hopeless, desperate or abandoned. It will perhaps be difficult, but we will most definitely bring peace, democracy, equality, freedom and justice."

The assault on human rights and the rule of law presided over by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan continued during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The president’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) and an allied far-right party enjoy a parliamentary majority enabling them to consolidate authoritarian rule by passing rushed legislation that contravenes international human rights obligations.

Opposition parties remain sidelined under Turkey’s presidential system and the government has reshaped public and state institutions to remove checks on power and to ensure benefits for its own supporters. The political opposition nevertheless controls the municipalities of Istanbul and Ankara. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/turkey

https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/europe-and-central-asia/turkey/report-turkey/

Turkey: Imprisoned journalists, human rights defenders and others, now at risk of Covid-19, must be urgently released

Thousands of Kurdish politicians, activists, journalists and academics have been arrested since 2009 on suspicion of links with the KCK and

There's even a joke saying that every Kurd will be arrested once in his life.” Sadık Topaloğlu, journalist, Istanbul bureau, Mesopotamia Agency.https://www.pri.org/stories/2021-03-09/all-us-have-been-arrested-least-once-kurdish-press-turkey-walk-fine-line

HDP Young Women's Assembly members exposed their policies of spying and threatening their members with a press statement at the İHD Istanbul Branch.

https://www.gazetepatika15.com/hdp-genc-kadin-koordinasyonu-mucadelemizden vazgecmeyecegiz-93094.html

Statement from Grup Munzur: Not us; our songs are being judged

Grup Munzur stated that lawsuits were filed due to the folk songs they sang, marches and speeches on the stage, and that the members of the group were unlawfully arrested and given various punishments.

Not solely Kurdish women but also Arab and Christian women arrive at the centers looking for help; the problems of patriarchy transcend ethnicity and religion. Other projects seek to train women in skills so they can support themselves without relying on male relatives. At the women’s center in Qamislo, the most popular course is “women and rights,” teaching women that they really do have the right and the ability to conduct their own lives based on their own choices.

women in Rojava participate in public and political life. All leadership positions, in every institution or organization, are twofold: one male and one female. And according to the Social Contract, “The proportion of the representation of both genders in all institutions, administrations and bodies is of at least 40 percent.” That is, any meeting must consist of 40 percent women.

This quota is observed in all mixed-gender people’s councils, organizations, and committees. And alongside the mixed-gender councils are corresponding all-women councils that have veto power over decisions that affect women. As a result, women have become a real political force. In the city of Afrin, over 65 percent of individuals involved in the administration are women.

https://towardfreedom.org/story/archives/women/the-women-s-revolution-in-rojava/

ABDULLAH OCALAN, “LIBERATING LIFE: WOMEN’S REVOLUTION,

Canonical text of the Kurdish women’s liberation movement.

 INTERVIEW WITH THE WORLD’S FIRST ARMY OF WOMEN: YJA-STAR, SIGNALFIRE, MARCH 23, 2014

Why it is essential for women to have their own army in order to achieve equality with men in a guerrilla organization, and why this army is a model for autonomous women’s organizations in other spheres. The struggle of women is a prerequisite to democracy.

 “DON’T KNOW US BECAUSE OF OUR GUNS, BUT BECAUSE OF OUR IDEAS,” DILAR DIRIK, OPEN DEMOCRACY

Rather than being a rights-based side issue that puts the burden on women, women’s liberation and equality of all genders become a matter of responsibility for all of society, because they become measures of defining society’s ethics and freedom. For a radical and revolutionary freedom struggle, women's liberation must be a central aim, but also an active method in the process.

 JANET BIEHL, “THE WOMEN’S REVOLUTION IN ROJAVA,” AUGUST 27, 2015, TOWARD FREEDOM

From its inception in 2011, the Rojava revolution put women’s rights first, outlawing polygamy and forced marriages, criminalizing “honor killings,” and transforming a traditional agricultural society into one where women are moving towards equality.

 RAHILA GUPTA, “THE ROJAVA PAPERS,” A SERIES OF FIVE ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN OPENDEMOCRACY IN APRIL, 2015: “A REVOLUTION FOR OUR TIMES: ROJAVA, NORTHERN SYRIA,” APRIL 4 2016

The border crossing and contrast between Iraqi Kurdistan and Rojava.

 “ROJAVA’S COMMITTMENT TO JINEOLOJI: THE SCIENCE OF WOMEN,” APRIL 11 2016

The question of a Kurdish state, women’s academies and male-female co-chairs.

 “ROJAVA REVOLUTION: IT’S RAINING WOMEN,” APRIL 26 2016

Kongreya Star, the umbrella women’s organization, drawing women into political life.

 "ROJAVA REVOLUTION: RESHAPING MASCULINITY,” MAY 9 2016

The struggle to overturn traditional ideas of masculinity and women’s place.

 “ROJAVA REVOLUTION: ON THE HOOF,” MAY 23 2016

Economics: Setting up women’s cooperatives, dealing with Rojava’s oil.

 "ROJAVA REVOLUTION: HOW DEEP IS THE CHANGE?" JUNE 20 2016.

Are political differences being worked through or buried? And what about sex?

 GÜLTAN KIŞANAK, INTERVIEWED BY NADJE AL-ALI AND LATIF TAS, “KURDISH WOMEN’S BATTLE CONTINUES AGAINST STATE AND PATRIARCHY, SAYS FIRST FEMALE CO-MAYOR OF DIYARBAKIR,” AUGUST 12, 2016, OPENDEMOCRACY

A germinal interview with a leader in the Kurdish women’s movement and HDP, covering her time in jail and the struggle to make local HDP leaders responsive to women’s leadership. Since this interview, Kişanak was prosecuted, along with most other HDP leaders, and sentenced to fourteen years in prison for “aiding terrorism.”

 MEREDITH TAX, “WHEN WOMEN FIGHT ISIS.” AUGUST 18, 2016, NEW YORK TIMES

While militaries often target women in wartime, as a way of symbolically defiling and disrupting a culture, Kurdish female guerrillas have become empowered through actively taking up self-defense and defense of other women from ISIS, particularly the Yazidis.

 BENEDETTO ARGENTIERI, “NO TIME FOR LOVE, CHILDREN, 'DESIRES': MEET THE FEMALE KURDISH FREEDOM FIGHTERS,” AUGUST 30, 2017, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

Interviews with women guerillas who have devoted their lives entirely to the struggle.

 DILAR DIRIK, “FEMINIST PACIFISM OR PASSIVE-ISM?” MARCH 7, 2017, OPENDEMOCRACY

Resistance is central to the Kurdish women’s liberation movement and the pacifism of liberal feminists fails to distinguish between state militarism and legitimate self-defence, based on social justice, communal ethics, and women’s autonomy.

 JOOST JONGERDEN, “GENDER EQUALITY AND RADICAL DEMOCRACY: CONTRACTIONS AND CONFLICTS IN RELATION TO THE ‘NEW PARADIGM’ WITHIN THE KURDISTAN WORKERS’ PARTY (PKK),” 2017

The paradigm change from the goal of a national state to democratic confederalism and autonomy within the PKK and affiliated Kurdish liberation organizations was closely connected with the increasing leadership of women in the party. These questions led to a split in 2004, in which the new paradigm and women emerged victorious.

 LAVA SELO, “WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN ROJAVA: PERCEPTIONS BELIEVED AND REALITIES YET TO BE ACHIEVED,” JULY 2018, HEINRICH BOLL STIFTUNG

A skeptical researcher interviews 27 women in Rojava to find out how much their equality is real and how much is aspirational. Lots of data on organizational structures and the challenges faced by those trying to change traditional behavior.

 ANYA BRIY AND MAHIR KURTAY INTERVIEWING  AYŞE GÖKKAN AND GÜLCIHAN ŞIMŞEK, “INTERVIEW WITH THE FREE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT (TJA) IN NORTH KURDISTAN,” OCTOBER 23, 2018, OPENDEMOCRACY

An interview with TJA-KJA representatives in Diyarbakir. The Free Women’s Congress (KJA) was established in 2015 as an umbrella for various women’s initiatives, as well as political parties, NGO’s, culture and faith groups, and local governments.

 RICHARD HALL, ‘WELCOME TO JINWAR, A WOMEN-ONLY VILLAGE IN SYRIA THAT WANTS TO SMASH THE PATRIARCHY.” DECEMBER 2, 2018, INDEPENDENT

A village in Rojava built by and inhabited only by women, many of them war widows, others who want to live an independent life free of man.

 ANYA BRIY, INTERVIEWING B.E., “THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF THE KURDISH WOMEN’S MOVEMENT,” JANUARY 3, 2019, OPENDEMOCRACY

An interview with an editor of the Jineoloji Journal in Diyarbakir about theoretical and practical activities of the Kurdish women’s movement in Turkey. The journal is one of the few remaining initiatives by the Kurdish movement that have not been shut down in the wake of the 2015-2016 military offensive by the Turkish state on predominantly Kurdish cities or otherwise repressed since the 2016 failed coup attempt.

 MERAL ZIN CICEK, INTERVIEW, “THE WOMEN’S REVOLUTION IN THE 21ST CENTURY: FROM SOLIDARITY TO COMMON STRUGGLE,” MARCH 13, 2019, KOMUN ACADEMY

A call to raise the level of unity in the global women’s liberation movement and also its organizational capacity, so that its solidarity will become more than emotional support.

https://www.defendrojava.org/kurdish-womens-liberation-movement

NEWS CENTER - In order to embrace the Istanbul Convention, many journalists and artists said, "Speak up too".

The struggle of women continues for the Istanbul Convention, which was abolished by AKP President Tayyip Erdoğan's one night decree and announced to be abolished completely on 1 July. Many artists, journalists and writers also called for the ownership of the Istanbul Convention.

Actors Ayşenil Şamlıoğlu, Deniz Çakır, Leyla Selen Uçer, journalists Şirin Payzın, Melis Alphan, Ece Temelkuran and many others made a video call for the Istanbul Convention.

 Istanbul Convention call from journalists and artists

The women who shared on their social media accounts listed the names of the women murdered by male violence and said, "The Istanbul Convention is ours.

Give your voice to the Istanbul Convention." In the 20th century, public officials in Turkey viewed the Kurdish language and Kurdish issue as a security issue and therefore imposed strict rules banning the language, relocating people, imprisoning, executing, enforcing Turkish language and names, and even establishing boarding schools for Kurdish children in order to prevent any secession attempts by Kurds.

By contrast, the discussion of the 21st century presented in this thesis shows that politicians still talk about security and how the spread of Kurdish language is a threat to the unity of the country.

However, it is being so openly and extensively discussed which was not the case even a decade ago. Now the Kurdish language has entered a different arena and can be viewed as a legitimate political issue that can be publicly discussed.

The question remains then how long it will take for Kurdish language discussion to leave the political platform and become an inviolable human right.

KURDS AND TURKISH NATIONALISM: FROM ASSIMILATION TO ELIMINATIONKURDS AND TURKISH NATIONALISM: FROM ASSIMILATION TO ELIMINATION

9 MONTHS AGOPOLICY REPORTS

Throughout the past century, the Kurdish question has been a forefront issue in Turkish nationalism, and the only answer the nationalists have presented to resolve the Kurdish issue is attempting to eliminate the Kurds.

Throughout this period, Turkish nationalism has reared its head in many forms. Still, in each way, the ethnic cleansing of Turkish minority populations has been at the centre of the Turkish state's ideology and supported by the country's nationalists.

To understand the hidden objectives behind Turkey's offensives in the Kurdish areas of Syria, one must understand both the conflict between these two nationalisms in Turkey and the ideology of the Turkish state.

This Turkish nationalist ideology has even influenced it's foreign leaving the Kurdistan Region of Iraq within the crosshairs of the Turkish state too.

By utilizing previous research and exploring the historical issues relating to the matter, this article will explore the factors that have allowed the Kurds to survive and not to follow the same path as the Armenians and the Christians of the Greek Orthodox Church.

Furthermore, it will explore how Turkey has transitioned from a policy of "assimilating the Kurdish population into the Turkish one" to a system of massacres and ethnic cleansing. Surfing in the newly released digital sources of the Ataturk Library of the Istanbul Municipality.

Entering my usual keywords randomly to see what is out there in my areas of interest, I came across a diary of a Turkish soldier kept during the year 1938, while he was doing his compulsory military service.

Ego-documents are a rare source in Ottoman-Turkish studies in general, but the content of this particular diary made it unique and almost unreal beyond my wildest expectations, on an issue that I have studied since 1999.

This soldier served for two months in the sweeping stage of the genocide military operation carried out by the Turkish republic with the intent to resolve the “perennial Dersim Question” between 1937-1938.

As a final point, I would like to emphasize that as notes taken during bombardments and the aftermath of killings and village burnings, this diary has re-affirmed what the Dersimlis narrated for decades – yet from the opposing moral, political and emotional position.

While these entries give the reader the feeling of receiving blow after blow, they ironically also had a liberating impact on the survivors.

Not only carrying the physical and emotional marks of 1938, but also suffering from the trauma of denial and indifference, many of these survivors lived their lives with the burden of having witnessed and being boxed into 1938.

They could not get out of it, as one of them eloquently stated in his testimony. Shifting the narrative from the survivor to the perpetuator had the potential of relieving them of this life-long burden, and the potential of opening up public and personal spaces to deal with their trauma. It also enabled, as brief as it was, a conversation on past crimes, and the involvement of the wider public

Socialism is the Best Medicine Barri Zonema

Socialism refers to a specific stage of social and economic development that will displace capitalism, characterized by coordinated production, public or cooperative ownership of capital, diminishing class conflict and inequalities that spawn from such and the end of wage-labor with a method of compensation based on the principle of "From each according to his ability, to each according to his contribution"  

The aim of public ownership is to ensure that production is responsive to the needs and desires of the general population and that goods and services are distributed equitably.

Kurdish people have been fighting to survive for centuries. Recently, their struggles have become more militant, more global, and less isolated, aligning with other anti-racist and anti-colonial movements, and leading the environmental movement.

The growing challenge that Kurdish people pose to capitalist rule can be measured by the increasing use of military force to suppress their rebellions and by the targeted murders of Kurdish activists.

In Turkey, the portion of Kurdish people incarcerated in federal facilities rose from under 18 per cent in 2001 to over 30 per cent in 2020.

Kurdish women are just 4 per cent of the Turkish population, yet form an astonishing 42 per cent of all female prisoners in to turkey state custody.  

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)'s Women’s Liberation Ideology describes jineology as "a fundamental scientific term in order to fill the gaps that the current social sciences are incapable of doing.

Jineology is built on the principle that without the freedom of women within society and without a real consciousness surrounding women no society can call itself free."

https://sites.google.com/view/womens-liberation/

In Kurdish Rojava: Syria’s imperilled freedom fighters

In the midst of Syria’s bloody civil war, the Kurdish people have carved out an autonomous region in the country’s north called Rojava.

With a population of several million people, many of whom are refugees, it has been a haven for all those fleeing the Islamic State (Daesh) and dictator Bashar al-Assad, especially women, children and other persecuted ethnic minorities like the Yazidis.

 Rather than being a rights-based side issue that puts the burden on women, women’s liberation and equality of all genders become a matter of responsibility for all of society, because they become measures of defining society’s ethics and freedom.

For a radical and revolutionary freedom struggle, women's liberation must be a central aim, but also an active method in the process.

https://sites.google.com/view/rojovafighters/

The murder in Dersim was undoubtedly massive, indiscriminate and extremely brutal, but was it genocide? there was a deliberate intent to destroy potential rebels, and this was part of a general policy towards the Kurds.

Was the revolt suppressed by considerable extreme killing of thousands of women and children?

Young people from Dersim, who were serving in the Turkish army, were taken from their regiments and shot.

Most of the young women threw themselves into the Munzur water from the high cliffs in order not to fall into the hands of the Turkish soldiers.

Thousands of women and children died as a result of the conflict, and others were displaced within the exiled country.

The murder in Dersim was undoubtedly massive, indiscriminate and extremely brutal, but was it genocide?

Or was it simply the suppression of an armed revolt with considerable overkill? I will try to show that neither is.

Residents of Hozat town and Karaca tribe, thousands of rebellious women and children were brought near the military camp outside Hozat and killed with machine guns.

https://sites.google.com/view/cinayet-killings

The tradition of oral expression known as a dengbêjî, the job of a dengbêj – a ‘soundteller’– lies at the foundation of traditional Kurdish music and is the only path to survival of a language facing extinction.

For Kurds, being deprived of any written sources, this poetic artful style of lyrics and rhythm by the dengbêj was a unique method of preserving their language and culture to this day.

 Many melodies sung in this tradition belonged originally to women. Although it was mostly women who have been using these melodies as a vehicle of self-expression, for instance to lament the loss of their sons and husbands in endless wars, it was always men who carried these works over to the dengbêj Divan (assembly).

Due to religious and other conservative traditions and beliefs, women could only raise their voice behind closed doors, silently. Music is one of the many fields in which Kurdish women fought countless battles to be a part of, but somehow they have managed to get their voices out from behind closed doors and deaf walls.

https://theatticmag.com/reports/2369/on-the-trails-of-a-banned-language.html

  The PKK has been led from the start by Ocalan, a Turkish Kurd inspired by Marxism-Leninism in his university days in Ankara.

Inspired by Cold War proletarian revolutionary rhetoric, Ocalan sought to fight against the “repressive exploitation of Kurds” and establish a “democratic and united Kurdistan”.

A highly charismatic leader, Ocalan leads a grassroots movement uniting Kurds from different religious sects, countries, and cultures.

However, his espousal of terrorist tactics as well as his affiliations with unsavory organizations such as the militant Lebanese group Hezbollah earned the ire of the international world, and landed the PKK on the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) lists of a number of countries, including the United States.

After Syria expelled him along with other Kurdish rebels in 1998, Ocalan sought asylum in Russia, Italy, and Kenya before Turkish forces captured him in the Greek embassy in Kenya in early 1999.

A Turkish state security court sentenced him to death for treason, but following a surprisingly bold and public apology and renunciation of his cause, the sentence was commuted to life in solitary confinement.

Since his trial, he has been imprisoned on an island in the Marmara Sea, not far from Istanbul.

[mazenhassoun]

ISIS Has Left the Syrian City of Raqqa, but Its Landmines Continue to Maim and Kill This article was originally published on The Global VoicesMazen Hassoun – 12 February 2018For nearly four years, between 2013 and 2017, Syria’s Raqqa city remained under the control of one of the bloodiest jihadist groups of this century: ISIS, also known as ISIL, Daesh, and Islamic State.During its reign, ISIS forced inhabitants of the city, which it had declared to be the capital of its “caliphate,” to follow its extreme rules. Those who disobeyed were killed by crucifixion or other brutal methods of public execution.In October 2017, after a four-month-long battle, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — a US-backed alliance of Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians and other groups — managed to take control of the city and drive ISIS out. The retaking of Raqqa reportedly included an agreement between SDF and ISIS through which ISIS fighters and their families would be allowed safe passage to Deir Ezzor in Syria’s east, according to the BBC.But despite the group’s defeat in Raqqa, ISIS wasn’t finished with inflicting damage on the city’s population. As one ISIS fighter told civilians before withdrawing from the city, “The land will fight for us”.One of the ways “the land” is “fighting” for ISIS is through landmines.Speaking to Global Voices over the phone, Abu Fares, a 53-year-old man who lost two of his sons to landmines planted by ISIS, said in a voice full of sorrow:When the SDF and the international coalition attacked the city, we were forced to leave. However, we couldn’t leave at the beginning of the fight, because ISIS used us as human shields. I lost one of my sons while we were trying to flee the city in the Shahdah district when a landmine exploded.Abu Fares lost his second son a month after the battles were over:A month after the battles ended we were allowed to return to our homes. I sent one of my sons to check our home near the clock roundabout, but when he arrived, the landmines were waiting for him in front of the house’s door”.A total of 220 civilian have been killed and dozens have been injured in Raqqa since the SDF victory due to mines planted by ISIS, according to a member of “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently”, a group of local activists who document violations in the city.When operation “Wrath of Euphrates“, the codename for the anti-ISIS operation, started in November 2016, ISIS began to plant a large number of mines to prevent SDF forces from advancing towards Raqqa. But rather than hit their intended targets, these landmines often killed civilians fleeing the battles.The explosive devices have also killed several SDF fighters, including British volunteer Oliver Hall who lost his life months ago while he was clearing the mines. As of the time of writing, the SDF has yet to announce the number of fighters killed due to these mines.A voluntary organization called “Roj” (short for Rojava, a region in northern Syria and western Kurdistan) is working in the city on removing thousands of mines with the help of Raqqa’s Civil Council and international organizations. “The number of unexploded ordnance in Raqqa is something that we never seen before”, UN assistant secretary general Panos Moumtzis told news agency Reuters in February 2018.But that work isn’t happening fast enough for some residents. Amira, 35 years old, told Global Voices that she had to pay 50,000 Syrian pounds (approximately 100 US dollars) to a private person to clear the mines in her house after the organizations working to clear them in the area rejected her request, saying that her neighborhood’s turn hasn’t come yet.She said she had to return to Raqqa after initially fleeing because of the terrible living conditions in the camps in the north for internally displaced people:ISIS planted mines everywhere, under beds, among the rubble, inside fridges and wash machines even inside an electric lamp experts found a mine.According to residents, the Al-Tayar, Al-Mishlab and Al-Darriah neighborhoods were the only residential districts that have been completely cleared of landmines so far.The process of de-mining in Raqqa is going very slow because of the lack of funds and resources available to the Civil Council. This situation is forcing civilians to return to their unsafe homes, causing regular casualties in a city that has already suffered under ISIS occupation for nearly four years.

[antifainternational]

November 30 -  An International Night Of Music To Benefit Rojava

We are a collective of internationals that after bearing witness to the atrocities of the fascist Turkish state in Rojava/AANES (Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria) are saying, enough is enough! With limited help from nation states and the pulling out of many, if not most, NGOs, medical service workers and supplies in the region are becoming scarce.

The history of attacks by the Turkish state goes back decades. In 1977 Turkey committed ethnic cleansing on the island of Cyprus, they have not left since. In 2018 Turkey invaded and occupied the Canton of Afrin in Rojava. This caused forced displacement of the Kurdish population there (often at gunpoint); saw the language changed to Turkish on street signs and municipal buildings; having Kurdish removed as an official language of instruction is schools; and the handing over of security services to the ultra-violent, ruthless, jihadist gangs and mercenaries Turkey sent in as cannon fodder to absorb casualties in place of the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF). This is still in effect today.

Now, since October 9th, 2019, the Turkish state is committed to implementing the same policies of ethnic cleansing and demographic change that it successfully used in Afrin. They are managing to do this as the world’s “leaders” simply look on. The Turks justify this to the world under the guise of “anti-terrorism.” Often “terrorist” is just what the bigger army calls the smaller army.

There is no history of unprovoked, cross-border attacks on Turkey coming from Rojava. To say that Turkey needs a “peace corridor” along its border with Rojava is an absurdity as they are the aggressor in every case (whole MIT intelligence services financially and materially supported ISIS).

We see through their thinly veiled propaganda for so-called “peace” in the region. Their so-called peace is a trail of war crimes that includes shelling of civilians, body mutaliations, rape, the use of internationally-banned weapons, looting, destruction of churches, and attacks on medical workers, civilians, community leaders, and humanitarian volunteers.

The Rojava Revolution is a woman’s revolution. Turkey’s crimes specifically target these brave women. We can not stand idly by while these things are happening. We call on the people of the world to both stand in solidarity with the people of Rojava and help to bring aid in a material way.

Towards this end, we are holding an international music festival on November 30th, 2019 to raise funds to bring in medical supplies and medical service workers to help in the treatment of those impacted by Turkey’s war of  ethnic cleansing and use of jihadist militias. It’s evident that no state power wants to see this revolution flourish, nor any capitalist NGOs are willing to go in areas of even remote threat. We’ve come together in solidarity for this beautiful revolution to show that a network of mutual aid can do things no state or capitalist enterprise is willing to do or establish.

By working with a grassroots, ground-up, medical collective based in Rojava with history of providing care there, we can each contribute to the effort of saving lives and holding the line on this invasion.

Rojava has long been a beacon of hope to oppressed peoples the world over. It now faces an existential threat like it has never seen before. We must do everything we can to ensure the revolution continues and keeps inspiring us all! Together we are powerful. Let’s have a night that shows this!

If you cannot attend the shows, please donate what you can to the fundraiser here. For more information on solidarity efforts, go here.

List of Benefit Concerts

Chicago, IL - The Garden (house venue) - Doors @ 8pm, music @ 9pm https://facebook.com/events/432204927446416/?ti=cl Seattle, WA - New Freeway Hall - 7pm  https://facebook.com/events/2826830100669564/?ti=cl Spokane, WA, The Senator https://facebook.com/events/2452707328385918/?ti=cl 8pm Missoula, MT - Free Cycles https://facebook.com/events/s/musicians-day-of-solidarity-wi/501423630438668/?ti=cl Doors @ 6pm, music @ 7pm Bozeman, MT - Labor Temple https://facebook.com/events/411118833122992/?ti=cl 830pm Butte, MT - Covellite Theater https://facebook.com/events/2507679972854768/?ti=cl 6pm Milwaukee, WI - Cactus Club https://facebook.com/events/s/musicians-day-of-international/2440861489576568/?ti=cl 9pm Rapid City, SD - The Cave Collective https://facebook.com/events/650488522024167/?ti=cl 7pm Bloomington, IN - I FELL a community of artists https://facebook.com/events/433386974019306/?ti=cl 8pm Kansas City, MO - Farewell Transmission https://facebook.com/events/439906283378491/?ti=cl 6515 Stadium Drive 8pm Denver, CO - Puzzle Palace (house venue) https://facebook.com/events/s/musicians-day-of-solidarity-wi/1584931214979833/?ti=cl 9pm Tuscon, AZ - Owls Club https://facebook.com/events/584352482309326/?ti=cl 8pm Detroit, MI - Crow Manor https://facebook.com/events/540839363402393/?ti=cl 4pm-1am Portland, OR - Social Justice Center https://facebook.com/events/2578809615546203/?ti=cl 7pm Pomona, CA - Characters Pomona https://facebook.com/events/s/musicians-day-of-solidarity-wi/784828575298773/?ti=cl 5pm Minneapolis, MN - Seward Community Cafe https://facebook.com/events/2431418323574364/?ti=cl 7pm Philadelphia, PN - House of Yarga (house venue) https://www.facebook.com/hausofyarga 7pm-10pm Tulsa, OK - Barkingham Palace https://facebook.com/events/594069087999597/?ti=cl 9pm New Orleans, LA - Mudlark Public Theater https://facebook.com/events/2400187653588448/?ti=cl 8pm Albany, NY - Paulys Hotel https://www.facebook.com/events/713005709110740/?ti=as 7pm Tijuana, Mexico - Lycanthro Pub https://facebook.com/events/463624757581152/?ti=cl 8pm Lisbon, Portugal - Disgraca https://facebook.com/events/415211585817257/?ti=cl 3pm-11pm Porto, Portugal (Link, location, and time to come soon!) Zurich, Switzerland - Kochareal Zürich 21.00

[antoine-roquentin]

Northern Syria was collapsing into chaos last night as hundreds of Islamic State (Isil) family members escaped from prison and Kurdish forces prepared to surrender key cities to the Assad regime after the US announced it was evacuating all troops from the area.

A notorious British Isil female recruiter was feared to be among nearly 800 wives and children of jihadist fighters who burst out of a Kurdish camp in the biggest prison break since Turkey launched its offensive last week.

The US also said it was pulling out all 1,000 of its soldiers in northern Syria, an abrupt reversal of policy that came just days after the Trump administration insisted it was only moving a few dozen commandos....

At least 200,000 people have been displaced so far, aid groups said, and the number is likely to rise.  

At least 26 civilians were reportedly killed on Sunday as a Turkish airstrike hit a convoy and Turkish-backed Syrian rebels were accused of killing a prominent female Kurdish politician and several other unarmed people. The rebels denied the allegations.  

Kurdish authorities said early on Sunday around 785 women and children escaped from a camp in Ain Issa when it came under attack from Turkish shelling.

Isil inmates “attacked the camp guard and opened the gates” while Kurdish forces were under fire, authorities said.

the deal appears to be to hand over raqqa, tabqah, and deir ezzor to the syrian govt, along with the gas and oil resources there, and joint control of rojava. the sdf and the local military councils are going to be left in place, probably with future reconciliation-type agreements, where they become local governance but the syrian govt can take away people it doesn’t like, which would be especially important for turkish-syrian relations if turkey accuses syria of letting the pkk operate across the border (like turkey has done to syria for the past 8 years). the turkish invasion appears to be almost entirely FSA forces, which means the syrian army can engage them with impunity since they’re not killing actual turkish soldiers. the syrian air force apparently already barrel bombed them. 

SDF general commander Mazloum Abdi

We believe in democracy as a core concept, but in light of the invasion by Turkey and the existential threat its attack poses for our people, we may have to reconsider our alliances. The Russians and the Syrian regime have made proposals that could save the lives of millions of people who live under our protection. We do not trust their promises. To be honest, it is hard to know whom to trust.

We know that we would have to make painful compromises with Moscow and Bashar al-Assad if we go down the road of working with them. But if we have to choose between compromises and the genocide of our people, we will surely choose life for our people.