We are republishing an article by the Internationalist Commune in Rojava written shortly after a new round of attacks by the Turkish state and Islamist groups against Autonomous Self-Administration of North-East Syria.
Original article here.
A lot has happened since the beginning of the attacks that the Turkish state, with the help of Islamist gangs, began on November 29 against the Autonomous Self-Administration of North-East Syria. Only now have we found the time to speak out on behalf of the Internationalist Commune and to point out some of the background. We are all, just like the organized population in Rojava and North-East Syria, preparing and organizing for the resistance. Be it on a civilian, military or media level, work is in full swing in all areas and all of us are involved in it in different ways.
Since all kinds of assumptions and speculations about the background, course and outcome of the fighting and battles are currently circulating in the media, we would just like to call on all friends to stick to the media of the self-defense forces and not to help the information war of the international and local occupying states to succeed.
Regardless of the front lines and war events, it is essential to understand these attacks as part of the imperialist project of a Neo-Ottoman Empire. Turkish fascism has been pursuing this since 2011 and plans to bring parts of Syria, Iraq and Lebanon under its control. The Azerbaijani attack on Artsakh in 2023 occupied another part of Armenia. The ethnic cleansing and cultural genocide of first the Armenian and then the Kurdish population is now to be brought to an end. This project goes back to the Misak-i-Milli (Ottoman National Pact), which covers the area in which the Young Turk movement actually wanted to build the Turkish state after the First World War. However, it was later destroyed by the Western powers, especially England and France. On the basis of the pact, Turkish fascism sees all the areas included in the pact as its rightful property, which it now wants to reclaim. Within these borders, a homogeneous, unified and purely Turkish society based on patriarchal and racist principles is to be achieved. In this way, the Turkish state wants to become the only great power in the Middle East. This colonial project of Turkish fascism poses no less of a threat to the entire region, women, young people and all peoples than the reign of terror of the Islamic State or the imperialism of Israel, with which Turkish fascism has very close ties. As part of NATO, it is clear that the Turkish state has agreed on such operations with the military alliance and that the alliance supports the attacks, just as it supports the genocide in Palestine. Western imperialism is thus pursuing the weakening of Iranian influence. All events of the last few days and what is still to come should therefore be understood as part of the policy of Turkish fascism and NATO.
The forces that stand in the way of this imperialist plan are, on the one hand, the Kurdistan Freedom Movement, led by the PKK and the Rêber APO paradigm, Democratic Confederalism. On the other hand, it is all the peoples of the region who work and fight every day to build a democratic and independent Middle East. The Democratic Autonomous Administration of North-East Syria (DAANES) sets an example for the entire region. After the democratic awakening of the “Spring of the Peoples” (also known as the Arab Spring) was crushed by imperialist and Islamist forces in 2011, the revolution in Rojava was able to take place, develop further and spread after the victory over the Islamic State. Even more than the liberation of territories, the women’s revolution and the brotherhood between the peoples of the region are essential successes. This revolution is therefore not only militarily opposed to Turkish fascism, but above all ideologically. For years, it has therefore done everything imaginable to wipe it out, and the recent attacks represent another attempt to do so. After the Turkish occupation of Iraq and Southern Kurdistan failed due to resistance from the professional guerrilla forces of the PKK, it is now trying to achieve success in north-east Syria.
Since the beginning of the revolution, the people of Rojava and North-East Syria, as well as the organized self-defense forces, have been resisting all kinds of attacks and massacres that Turkish fascism and its Islamist gangs have carried out without ceasing. In defense of the revolution in North-East Syria, 12,000 people have already died in battle and at least twice as many have been injured in the war. Territories have been occupied and thousands have lost their homes. In addition, over the last hundred years, Turkish fascism and its imperialist allies have repeatedly tried to physically and culturally destroy the peoples of the region, first the Christian minorities and then the Kurds. From the deportations and mass murders of Armenians from 1915, the Dersim massacre in 1938, the torture prisons and burning of villages in the 1990s in Northern Kurdistan, the genocide of the Yazidis in 2014 and the terror of the Islamic State, no means have been left untried. But especially since the emergence of the liberation movement under the leadership of Rêber APO 50 years ago, all of these attacks have been met with resistance: the resistance in the Turkish torture prisons in 1982, the guerrilla war of self-defense since 1984, the struggle of the autonomous city administration under the leadership of the youth in Northern Kurdistan in 2015/16 and the resistance in Kobanê are just a few examples. The current attacks are not the first attempt to complete the genocide that has begun and to completely subject the Middle East to the patriarchal rule of the hegemonic states, and it will not be the last, that should be clear to us. It should also be clear that this has not been achieved for a hundred years, and that this time and in the future they will fail due to the resistance of the peoples.
Therefore, the only option not only for the peoples of North-East Syria and the entire region, but for all revolutionary, socialist and democratic youth is to participate in the resistance against the occupation of Turkish fascism. Wherever it tries to sell itself as an advocate of the oppressed and its Islamist mercenaries as rebels, it must be unmasked as an enemy of the peoples of the region. Wherever it tries to present itself as anti-imperialist, its colonial and genocidal nature must be revealed. Whether within the borders of Turkey or in the areas occupied by the Turkish state or its mercenary armies, the murder of women, rape and sexism are the order of the day. Sexism is state doctrine in Turkey and the perpetrators are mostly soldiers, police officers or other henchmen of fascism itself. Therefore, these attacks must be understood as counter-revolutionary attacks against the Jin Jiyan Azadî Revolution. The heart of this revolution lies in Rojava, where the women’s defense units YPJ have defeated the Islamic State and, of course, the forces of patriarchy are trying to destroy this revolution of women in its heart as well.
Against its ideology of sexism, racism and fascism, we will continue to build a free and equal life and a society based on women’s liberation, ecology, self-organization and self-defense, side by side with all young people, women and peoples of the region. If you can, come to Rojava yourself and participate in social self-defense in various ways. If you have no opportunity to do so, look for ways where you are to hit Turkish fascism most sensitively. If the imperial system increases the war against the peoples immeasurably, we must work with even more confidence to build alternatives and long-term structures. If this system is now waging World War III and has destroyed millions of human lives over the past hundred years, we know that we have the task of developing revolutionary organization even more conscientiously and uniting our forces around the world against its wars.
Because resistance means life, and without resistance there can be no life.
Read more about the Internationalist Commune here and here. See how you can contribute here, and donate here.
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