CENTRAL NEWS – The feminist organization “Fight Together! For Self-Determination and Democratic Autonomy” condemned Turkey’s war of aggression against Southern Kurdistan and called for resistance. “It is unacceptable that the media and the world public watch silently as a war of extermination is waged against the Kurds,” the campaign declared in a written statement which further includes the following:
“Increasingly, the Turkish state is showing fascistic tendencies, making the possibility of a political solution to the conflict more and more remote. There is no longer a free press, tens of thousands of opposition members are imprisoned, elections are rigged. At this moment, military attacks are taking place simultaneously in three parts of Kurdistan at an extremely high level.
In the northern Iraqi autonomous region of Kurdistan, almost 200 air strikes were carried out by the Turkish army within five days and in the Şîladizê region alone, and only seven of 93 villages are still inhabited. Bombardments by the Turkish Air Force are also taking place on the Turkish-Iranian state border.
Once again, drone as well as artillery attacks have also increased on northeastern Syrian territory. Just last Wednesday, three of our friends, fighters of the Women’s Defense Units, YPJ, (Dilar, Ronahî and Kobanê) were killed by a cross-border drone attack in Kobanê, which is against international law. The city of Kobanê in particular is symbolic of the successful resistance against the self-proclaimed “Islamic State.” It was here that the first victory against “IS” took place, a battle that cost the lives of over 14,000 people. The female fighters of the YPJ were on the front line in Kobanê.
The support for the so-called Islamic State on the part of the Erdoğan government is well known; it is clear that the regime is working directly with “IS,” as most recently in the attempted breakout by IS jihadists in Hesekê, which was supported by Turkish air strikes.
The attack on Kobanê and the killing of the three young women is an attack on both women’s resistance and the fight against “IS.”
The military attacks hit the civilian population on an indescribable scale.
In addition to the Turkish state, the Iraqi state and the Kurdish party KDP are other aggressors. The KDP has now completely submitted to Turkey and is participating in the occupation of the Kurds’ land by Erdogan’s troops, as it did previously in Efrîn and Serêkaniyê. The Şengal region (the last settlement area of the Yazidis) is currently under attack by the Iraqi army, and our friend, YJŞ fighter Faraşîn Şengalî, was killed. The Iraqi state is trying to disarm the Yazidis’ self-defense forces, which would again expose them to defenselessness against genocides.
The intensity of the psychological and infrastructural warfare is not inferior to the military one. Meter-high walls are being erected along all state borders dividing Kurdistan in order to separate the civilian population from one another. Especially in the Şengal region, this also corresponds to a psychological continuation of the genocide and feminicide perpetrated persistently by “IS” since 2014. Thus, the escape corridor established and protected by HPG and YPG/YPJ units was the only way for the Yazidis trapped in the Zerdeşt Mountains in midsummer to reach safety.
The Russian state’s war of aggression against Ukraine, which violates international law, must not blind us to other atrocities in the world. War is an expression of the patriarchal system, everywhere.
In the current war of extermination against the most progressive force in the Middle East, the Kurdish movement, our dream of another world, is also meant to be bombed and destroyed, without regard for people and nature. The revolution in Rojava, the attempt to build a gender-just, ecological and diverse society, is meant to cease to exist and thus our hope for another world is to be nipped in the bud.
We therefore call on all people, all progressive forces, to become active immediately. Participate in the actions in your city or initiate some yourself. Inform people about this war, go into discussion, show protest and solidarity.
Let’s not leave the struggling women alone, another world is possible!”
