CENTRAL NEWS – This interview was published in the 7th edition of the Lêgerîn Magazine, witch can be fully download here.
Can you briefly introduce yourself? Why did you come to Rojava and what kind of work are you currently doing?
My name is Şahîn, I am from Germany and I have been working for many years with friends who are involved with Rojava and Democratic Confederalism. I came here almost a year ago. I am part of the internationalist youth commune in Rojava and were also doing society works in Heseke for a while. Through my work, I was able to gain a lot of experience, in all kinds of fields. I decided to come to Rojava to develop an understanding of this revolution and to learn how it works and how it is organised. There are many differences between the society here and the German society, but also many similarities, so we can learn a lot from each other. I was especially inspired to come here by the friends who came here to defend the revolution and fell in this struggle. I also knew a few of them personally, which pushed me even more to follow their path.
On the evening of 20 January, in the northern Syrian town of Heseke, with the help of Turkey, IS terrorists carried out a large-scale attack on the central prison in the Gweiran neighbourhood, where, according to the SDF, over 5,000 Islamists, some of them leaders, are being held. It is reported that the jihadists wanted to free the imprisoned terrorists.
As a result, there were fierce battles between security forces and IS fighters, some of which are still ongoing. Can you describe what happened on 20 January and until now?
It was in the evening when the friends came to us and told us what was happening, we jumped up and got ready. We packed our things and left for Gweiran, which is the district where Sinaa prison is located. When we arrived there that evening, a very big explosion took place just before, several fuel tankers blew up. We arrived at our position and could see the IS fighters with our own eyes. In the early morning we were moved to another place because the situation was not yet clear and at sunrise we went there again and could see that the IS had moved 100-200 metres away from us and there were heavy fights in the area again, there were many casualties. That morning, several defence rings were established around the prison and the neighbourhood so that the IS would not be able to leave the area. The IS had stormed the prison and supplied it with weapons and ammunition. Fierce fighting ensued with the use of heavy artillery. And this went on all day. Towards evening we went to another place to rest a bit and came back to our positions in the morning. The fighting continued. In the course of the fighting, many of the IS fighters were killed, many surrendered or were arrested again.
You were in the city yourself when the fighting started, how did you experience the evening and the past days? How did you first hear about the attack and what did you do?
The operations continued on the third day. A large part of the houses in which the IS had barricaded themselves were liberated again. And there were isolated battles in our area. Besides that, it was relatively quiet. Everywhere, society had organised itself and ensured its own security, night watches were kept on all street corners and checkpoints were set up everywhere. The guard was taken over by the people themselves. There was a curfew to prevent those who had escaped from prison from getting far. Traffic was controlled. Nothing could get in or out of certain areas. The population in the vicinity of the fighting was evacuated. Around noon, we left and went into the protected area to one of the hospitals nearby, where many of the injured were. We spent the night there on guard duty and then left early in the morning, again for a short rest. The following day we kept watch with the population. We set up checkpoints in certain parts of the city and in certain streets. Meanwhile, there were operations against sleeper cells all over the city, because more and more information was coming out through people who had been arrested. The days were full of adrenaline and excitement, but because we always made a plan of what the best next steps were, we were able to prevent the attack from being successful for IS. If the attacks had been successful, the plan that Turkey had worked out together with IS would have been successful. With the attack on the prison, the plan was to free the prisoners and to start a major offensive on Rojava. It was supposed to be the start of the active war, but the plans were prevented by the democratic forces in the region.
Can you say something about the situation of the injured? What is the current situation after 5 days of fighting and what is the extent of the destruction?
I cannot say exactly how many were evacuated or had to leave their homes. For those who had to leave their homes, halls and communal kitchens were set up. A lot of buildings were destroyed and heavily damaged by the use of heavy weapons and the air strikes by the International Coalition. The coalition participated with American helicopters; the helicopters dropped bombs from the air. Infrastructure such as electricity poles, walls, buildings, roads have been destroyed and must now be repaired and rebuilt. I cannot say how big the total extent is. But you can see it very clearly.
The self-government and its military structures accuse Turkey of being the mastermind behind the attacks. It is also said that the Syrian regime knew about the attacks and let the jihadists go ahead. The attack is said to have been prepared for 7-8 months and over 200 IS fighters have infiltrated from Iraq and Turkish-occupied areas. It is reported that in parallel to the attacks by the Islamists, the Turkish air force also flew air strikes on support forces trying to come to the aid of the security forces in Heseke. How do you see the role of Turkey and the international coalition in these attacks?
It is not the first time that there have been attempts to take this prison by force. There have been assumptions for 2-3 been taken. Surveillance, checkpoints and controls have been strengthened, for example. The prison is surrounded by a big wall and two three months ago another high wall was built around it. I know that if there had not been this preparation, the attack would have spread to the whole city.
Today, an officer of the Turkish armed forces was arrested in Heseke. He confessed that he was instructed by Turkey to train the IS and was sent here to coordinate the attacks on the prison. The others who were arrested also testified that the attack was made possible by the help of the Turkish state and the Syrian regime. Otherwise, they would not have been able to gather weapons, ammunition, etc. The attack was planned months in advance. On the same evening, there was also heavy artillery bombardment on the front in Til Temir, and there was an attempt to let individual units of the Turkish army infiltrate into the self-administered areas. At the time of the explosion in the prison, we could hear planes overhead and it turned out later that they were the war planes of the Turkish army. These attacks were repelled by the SDF forces. We could also observe a readiness and Mobilization of the Syrian regime. They were prepared for the attacks. There must have been intelligence talks between Damascus and Ankara beforehand. There were also talks between Russia and Ankara. In these talks, common understandings were reached and a common strategy was agreed upon. There is a common interest in destroying the administration.
The plan was to invade Rojava and capture the self-administered areas. So, we can definitely say that the attacks in Heseke were led by the planning of Turkey. They are a important players when it comes to the conflicts in the Middle East. They interfere everywhere for their own interests.
In recent years, the administration has repeatedly called on the states to transfer the foreign IS fighters back to their country of origin and to judge them there, but all calls have not been heard. The prisoners have already become a great economic burden and, as has now became clear, an immense security risk. It has been said over and over again that the aggressive policy of the Turkish state would encourage a revival of the Islamic State. In this context, what are the expectations for the Western states and what do you think needs to be done to prevent a revival of the Islamic State?
IS has been defeated militarily, but not ideologically nor in its roots and financial support. In the past, IS has always been able to regain its strength because different states have fought for their interests on the backs of the population of north-eastern Syria and have sent IS to do so, which then fought in the interests of states such as Turkey. The first step towards diplomatic cooperation is for the European states to recognize self-government. A second point is that the countries of origin of the IS fighters should take them back. Because they are, in fact, the citizens of these states.
But the states knowingly do not take back the IS fighters because they want to leave open the possibility of being able to use the IS as their extended arm against the self-administration. As we have now seen in Heseke. A third point is financial and material support. It is especially the European states like Germany that support Turkey,
other mercenary groups and also the IS with weapons, planning and financial resources. They also have an interest in the destabilisation of the region. The financial resources must be frozen and arms exports stopped. Neither to Saudi Arabia nor to Qatar or Turkey. The weapons that are used here are weapons that were manufactured by NATO. The arms industry, companies like Rheinmetall are major players. Rheinmetall produces in Germany, but through subcontractors also in African countries.
Finally, I would like to say that it is not the self-administration that needs us, internationalists, but that it is us who
need this revolution. It is the world that needs this revolution as a hope for a different life. If it was not for the influence of the states we come from, something like the strengthening of the IS would not be possible. We need this revolution, because for us as internationalists, as revolutionaries, this revolution is not a discussion, not a mind game, it is real and we can become a part of it. It is up to us what we make of it and how far we carry this revolution and spread the hope for a different life all over the world with the spirit of the women’s revolution in Rojava. It is up to us to defend this revolution on an international level and also on the ground and to build hot spots of revolution all over the world. If there is not everywhere a struggle for a free life, then we will not be able to bring the end of this system and to build a democratic society. Our enemy is organised internationally, so the solution can only be an international one.
In the attack on Al-Sina prision, 121 members of the AANES were martyred, among them fighters of the SDF and workers of the prision. More then 350 daesh terrorists were killed and 2,000 captured.
