#the kurdish female guerrillas fighting isis

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The Kurdish Female Guerrillas Fighting ISIS (Warzone Documentary)

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

WATCH Syrian women saved from Isis by female Kurdish fighters set up their own women-only battalion [UPDATES]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-isis-battle-latest-all-women-battalion-albab-manbij-a7391671.html

The Kurdish-led al-Bab Military Council in northern Syria is welcoming new female recruits who want to help free their hometown from the Islamist militants...

RELATED UPDATE: YPJ spokeswoman Nesrin Abdullah: We are both a peace and also a Self-Defense force

https://www.ypgrojava.org/YPJ-spokeswoman-Nesrin-Abdullah%3A-We-are-both-a-peace-and-also-a-Self-Defense-force.

RELATED UPDATE: WATCH I eradicated Isis with my women comrades – now our aim is to spread feminism across the Middle East

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/isis-syria-ypj-ypg-women-feminism-middle-east-a8838591.html

RELATED UPDATE: Rojava in Syria – growing local democracy and defending ecology in the midst of conflict

https://www.rapidtransition.org/stories/rojava-in-syria-growing-local-democracy-and-defending-ecology-in-the-midst-of-conflict/

RELATED UPDATE: ‘Now I’ve a purpose’: why more Kurdish women are choosing to fight

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jul/19/came-to-fight-stayed-for-the-freedom-why-more-kurdish-women-are-taking-up-arms

RELATED UPDATE: Defusing the patriarchy: Syria’s men are learning about women, from women

https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/07/20/defusing-the-patriarchy-syrias-men-are-learning-about-women-from-women/

RELATED UPDATE: Turkey assassinates Presenters leaving forum on "Women's Revolution of Rojava & NorthEast Syria"

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/23/2112121/-Turkey-assassinated-women-leaving-a-forum-on-Women-s-Revolution-of-Rojava-North-East-Syria

RELATED UPDATE: AANES: Three women killed in Turkish drone strike

https://medyanews.net/aanes-three-women-killed-in-turkish-drone-strike/

RELATED UPDATE: YPJ General Command: We will avenge our comrades against Turkish occupation and its spies

https://hawarnews.com/en/haber/ypj-general-command-we-will-avenge-our-comrades-against-turkish-occupation-and-its-spies-h31948.html

RELATED UPDATE: Thousands attend funeral of YPJ commanders Jiyan Tolhildan, Roj Xabûr and Barîn Botan

https://anfenglishmobile.com/rojava-syria/thousands-attend-funeral-of-ypj-commanders-jiyan-tolhildan-roj-xabur-and-barin-botan-61423

RELATED UPDATE: SDF arrests spies involved in the martyrdom of YPJ Commander Susan Birhat and her comrades

https://anfenglishmobile.com/rojava-syria/sdf-arrests-spies-involved-in-the-martyrdom-of-ypj-commander-susan-birhat-and-her-comrades-61450

RELATED UPDATE: Eight YPJ fighters killed by Turkish drones in North-East Syria since April

https://anfenglish.com/women/eight-ypj-fighters-killed-by-turkish-drones-in-north-east-syria-since-april-61474

RELATED UPDATE: YPJ international fighters condemn attacks by the Turkish state and call for a no-fly zone

https://anfenglish.com/rojava-syria/ypj-international-fighters-condemn-attacks-by-the-turkish-state-and-call-for-a-no-fly-zone-61466

RELATED UPDATE: Remembering Jiyan Tolhildan

https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/remembering-jiyan-tolhildan

RELATED UPDATE: Turkey/Syria: Civilians at Risk in Northern Syria

https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/08/17/turkey/syria-civilians-risk-northern-syria

RELATED UPDATE: Female commanders and leaders martyred by Turkish occupation and its mercenaries

https://hawarnews.com/en/haber/female-commanders-and-leaders-martyred-by-turkish-occupation-and-its-mercenaries-h32470.html

RELATED UPDATE: SLIDESHOW Kurdish Guerrillas

http://www.erintrieb.com/the-ypj-syrian-kurds/vp6m9y9cjp65g1rl0q5zkt1fd3020h

RELATED UPDATE: YPJ calls on the UN to act: "Turkey seeks to avenge and revive ISIS"

https://anfenglish.com/rojava-syria/ypj-calls-on-the-un-to-act-turkey-seeks-to-avenge-and-revive-isis-61999

RELATED UPDATE: Bedran Çiya Kurd assesses the rapprochement between Damascus-Ankara

https://www.hawarnews.com/en/haber/bedran-ciya-kurd-assesses-the-rapprochement-between-damascus-ankara-h32551.html

RELATED UPDATE: Women revolutionaries brutally victimised for flashing torch of liberation  

https://countercurrents.org/2022/08/women-revolutionaries-brutally-victimised-for-flashing-torch-of-liberation/

RELATED UPDATE: Internal Security arrested 3 people who tried to escape from 3rd sector in al-Hol camp

https://www.hawarnews.com/en/haber/internal-security-arrested-3-people-who-tried-to-escape-from-3rd-sector-in-al-hol-camp-h32631.html

RELATED UPDATE: KCK calls for organization of self-defence against attacks everywhere

https://anfenglishmobile.com/kurdistan/kck-calls-for-organization-of-self-defence-against-attacks-everywhere-62186

RELATED UPDATE: Outcome of sixth day of "Humanitarian and Security" operation

https://www.hawarnews.com/en/haber/outcome-of-sixth-day-of-humanitarian-and-security-operation-h32646.html

RELATED UPDATE: Kurdish militias accuse Turkey of strengthening Daesh

https://atalayar.com/en/content/kurdish-militias-accuse-turkey-strengthening-daesh

RELATED UPDATE: WATCH YRK fighter calls on young people to join the guerrilla ranks

https://anfenglishmobile.com/kurdistan/yrk-fighter-calls-on-young-people-to-join-the-guerrilla-ranks-62202

RELATED UPDATE: 11 arrested in ‘Humanitarian and Security Operation’ in Hol Camp on its 6th day

https://anfenglishmobile.com/rojava-syria/11-arrested-in-humanitarian-and-security-operation-in-hol-camp-on-its-7th-day-62205

RELATED UPDATE: Ypj Stock Photos and Images

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/ypj.html

YPJ, YPG & ROJAVA SWAG:

https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ypj

https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ypj+ypg

https://www.redbubble.com/shop/rojava

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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.

[awed-frog]

Portraits from war: the Kurdish fighters taking on ISIS

“I took another photograph of Berivan with one of her fellow female fighters, Silava. While the pair looked stoically into my camera as I took shots, they suddenly broke out laughing together. They then insisted that if I was going to publish one of the images, then I should use the laughing one, as it is ‘more realistic, because we always laugh when we fight on the frontlines.’”

All photos are taken from the book We Came From Fire, by Canadian photographer Joey L.

[who are these women? | read more | joey’s website | buy the book]

Captions:

Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) guerrilla members on an armed patrol in the countryside of Makhmur in Iraq.

Silava and Berivan of the Yazidi Women’s units (YJÊ) share a laugh in an abandoned ISIS base in Sinjar.

Fighters of the YJÊ gather outside their base for military training.

Jîn, a YPJ fighter, with rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

Evîndar and Nûdem, PKK guerrillas.

Warshin, a survivor of the Yazidi genocide and volunteer YJÊ fighter, in the Nineveh governorate in Iraq.

[rojavanpuolesta-blog]

Experiences in Rojava: An Interview with Plan C

We interviewed Peter Loo and Sarah Patton of Plan C, a nation-wide anti-capitalist organisation in the UK. They were both in Rojava from October 2016 to June 2017 and were based mainly in the city of Qamislo. 

1. Can you tell us first what Plan C is?

Plan C is a national anti-capitalist organisation here in the UK. We started the discussions which would lead to our group forming in 2010-2011 during the student protests of that time. Whilst the Conservative party's HQ was being ransacked and universities went into occupation, the radical left seemed to be absent. We saw the need for an organisation which was neither an anarchist network or a Trotskyist party. Whilst we have a high degree of pluralism in our organisation, we think loosely labelling our politics as libertarian socialist with an emphasis on base organising might help explain us to international comrades. Beyond Rojava work we help organise precarious workers in the gig economy, have helped found branches of a national tenants union, participate in lots of debate, run a festival, and support practical anti-fascist work.

 2. Why and how was the Plan C Rojava solidarity cluster founded? What are you doing? What is working well and what have been the biggest challenges?

We founded the Plan C Rojava solidarity cluster in 2015. Like many, we had been inspired by the heroic defence of the city of Kobane against Isis. Like many, we were surprised and amazed to encounter a revolution such as the one in Rojava which we had known nothing about. We formed the cluster to organise solidarity activity at the national level, and support our local work. As well as sending members to volunteer in civil society, two of whom have returned and a third who is still out there, we have organised fundraisers, talks, and helped organise local and national demonstrations. During a trip to Kobane we saw the school bus we had helped fundraise, which was a really nice thing to see. We have helped to form city-based solidarity groups with a mixture of British and Kurdish comrades. Sending volunteers was the natural development and outcome of the work we had done so far. Unlike other countries such as Germany, the connections between the British left and the Kurdish community and political structures were pretty much non-existent in 2014. We are making good progress in building these links and developing our capacities together. More and more people in society and the left are familiar with the Kurdish struggle. Still there is much more that needs to be done! Whilst we have sent some members and relatively large amounts of money for our size there is always more that could be done. We are also grappling with what we can take from the struggles in Kurdistan and bring back into our own organising here, we learned a lot from our comrades in Rojava and hope we show the same level of dedication and commitment in our work in the UK. We are also always looking for opportunities to bring our Kurdish comrades into the struggles of the UK. Recently we organised a bloc on an anti-Conservative Party demonstration gathering members of Plan C, the local community and the Kurdish community together, this is something new in the UK and we were happy to have helped co-ordinate this.

Photo: Solidarity with British YPG volunteer Josh Walker, who faced terrorism charges in the UK.

3. What were your first impression(s) of Rojava? What kind of activities have you participated in? Did you work with one or many specific local groups? And what do you think the international solidarity movement should do now and in the future?

We spent 9 and 6 months respectively working in civil society in Rojava. We were based in Qamishlo, a city which still has some presence of Assad forces and the Regime in it.

We worked in a TEV-DEM institution, primarily starting and running an English school but also participating in local campaigns to encourage the support and development of the commune system and within the woman's struggle. We participated in our local commune which was an inspiring and empowering experience, and taught lessons to various institutions within the city such as the worker's committee, the diplomacy department, women’s organisations and our local hospital.

Photo: Peter Loo and Sarah Patton’s local commune. They wrote about a meeting held before the Kurdish new year, Newroz: “there were still about 30 people in attendance (from a total of about 150 families in the commune). After a short presentation about the current political situation, we heard reports from the health, security, and education committees (other members of the commune couldn't make it to deliver reports from other committees). The body of the meeting centred on plans for Newroz, and frustrations about the necessary security measures for the day, as well as the beginning of weekly education sessions (first topic still tbd)…Those in attendance were surprised when we told them politics didn't really look like this in the UK!”

 One of the largest changes that has been made, and which we had totally underestimated, was outlawing polygamy. Many of the women we spoke to said this was the largest improvement in their lives. Wives were no longer living in fear of their husband taking another wife, relegating them permanently to the role of cook and childminder. Combined with legalising divorce these legal changes have given women a lot more autonomy. Some of the men Peter spoke to would confess this was a source of real annoyance for them so it was obviously working!

Of course, things aren't perfect and there is still a long way to go. Our favourite example of this is from a discussion that occured in our neighbourhood just after international working women's day. One of our students explained she had stayed at home looking after the children whilst her husband, a member of TEV-DEM attended the celebrations himself! Through discussing this she realised how wrong this was and challenged him that evening, we hope next year she is at the (huge) celebrations herself!

Reassuringly we were not massively surprised by many of the things we saw when we arrived in Rojava. If anything, we were surprised by just how far some elements of the Revolution had developed. In particular the development of the women's Revolution was surprising. Both the breadth and depth of this revolution against patriarchy impressed us. We expected to encounter more examples of tokenism and resistance from men but instead were met with a revolution that gave the utmost importance to feminism and the position of women in society.

One of the most headline grabbing parts of the revolution and the fight against Daesh has been the presence of women guerrillas and soldiers, in the western media images of beautiful young Kurdish women with guns are prevalent. There is no doubt that the military aspect of the women’s revolution is integral- part of women’s liberation must be giving equal access to weaponry and the means of self-defence, particularly in a war! This feminism on the front line is backed up by tireless work in civil society. Every position of authority has male and female co-chairs, every council must be at least 40% women or it ceases to go forward, and there are hundreds of education and training initiatives aimed at giving women the tools they need to lead, and the knowledge they may not have been able to access pre-revolution.

There are ‘women’s houses’ in every neighbourhood that tackle problems ranging from domestic violence to child care and new laws that forbid the practise of polygamy, a change that all the women we spoke to welcomed. There are of course still issues, for example we once went to our local commune and found there were very few women- they were at home because they had to look after their children. Some of our comrades chided their husbands and decided to work on providing childcare. It is important to recognise that this revolution and these changes to society are happening in a war-time situation and, even if this were not the case, real change happens slowly. 4. What did you learn? Well perhaps it is more accurate to say what did we re-learn! Firstly we (re)learnt that revolution is possible. We must continually remind ourselves of this truth. Rojava is a reminder that where people organise and struggle, revolution is always possible. Secondly, that it is not just ideas which help support for a revolution. The support that has been built for this Revolution amongst the people has been built on several levels. 1) An ideological vision of a progressive and fair world with democracy, ecology, and women's rights at its centre connected to a strong critique of capitalism and imperialism. 2) The reliable provision of security and the basic necessities such as subsidized bread and oil. 3) A series of effective "transmission belts" for the Revolution which bring people into contact with the ideas and functions of it. Primarily we are thinking of the communes at the street level and both the People's and women's houses at the neighborhood level. There is also a vibrant political popular culture with various festivals celebration and Remembrance days and music and theatre. 4) The role of the organised Kurdish liberation movement can also not be understated. We felt humbled by the incredible comrades and organisers we met in our time in Rojava. The bravery, discipline, dedication, and passion for the development of everyone in this society was inspiring. Without the organised Kurdish liberation movements this Revolution would not have happened and would certainly have buckled in the face of such fierce opposition from both Isis and regional powers.

Photo: Plan C interviewing their local Mala Jin (women’s house): “Common problems they are organising against include domestic violence, polygamy, and forced marriages. Our local Mala Jin works on at least 15 cases a week and is an important resource for women fighting for their freedom. The interview was incredibly inspiring. Heval Jiyan Ciwan, who is holding our flag with us, is the head of this Mala Jin and has been an organiser in Qamishlo for 25 years and was arrested and jailed by the Assad regime before the revolution. The heval on the far left has lost one son in the fight against ISIS and her other two sons are currently serving in the Raqqa campaign. She told us that her work here is as important as the fight on the front lines.”

5. In Finland people have had a hard time in deciding what would be the best thing to do for solidarity with Rojava. In your opinion what are the best ways people from Europe can support the Rojava revolution abroad and in Rojava? Depending on which country you are in the first challenge is always raising awareness in both the left and in society whilst building connections and projects with existing Kurdish structures. These structures will usually have a strong idea of what could be most useful. Some of the major problems the Revolution is facing are international ones, particularly the role of Turkey in the region. Applying diplomatic pressure on Turkey from your home state is one thing we can do here in Europe. The Revolution in Rojava does need volunteers. If you have a skill which is useful in civil society and are interested to go we suggest you make contact with your local pro-Rojava Kurdish groups or organizations. Be aware this can be difficult, projects can take time to set up and resources are scarce. Any resources you can bring with you and any preparation you can do, for example learning some Kurdish, will pay off during your time in Rojava. This article is worth checking out. Whilst we don't agree with all of it, we think the actual organised structures in Rojava should be supported and TEV-DEM should be seen as part of these structures, it has points about the practicalities of volunteering etc.: https://www.weareplanc.org/blog/what-do-you-mean-you-support-rojava/.

The revolution, despite being under embargo, always needs money and equipment. We would recommend caution however, before donating money pay attention to who is asking, what they are asking for, and why. A common dynamic is that of fundraising projects started or supported by English speaking supporters raising sometimes disproportionate amounts of money. We have seen several campaigns to equip Western military volunteers (who will be equipped by the YPG/YPJ anyway), and even to fly home some western volunteers rejected by the YPG on political grounds! We would recommend those of you planning fundraisers to speak to the Kurdish structures for guidance on where to send money. Of course sending money or resources at the moment is difficult due to the Embargo. If in doubt donating to the Kurdish Red Cross is always a good idea.

People with medical or engineering skills are in high demand, though being in demand and being put to useful work are different things. Through the right structures English teachers, particularly trained and/or experienced ones are useful. Learning English allows people to communicate the reality of the revolution to the outside world and broaden their own horizons. We found that a 6-month stay is almost certainly not long enough for the structures to place you somewhere useful, for you to learn the culture and some language, and to achieve some meaningful work. If you can't commit to much more than 6 months, having planned handovers, or looking for people to carry on your work when you leave, is also very useful. We were able to do this with a comrade of ours from Plan C.

 Photo: Newroz celebrations in Qamilso: “As spring slowly edges in the yearly fires of resistance have been relit, from Sengal to the mountains of Bakur the struggle continues.”

Photo Credits: Plan C

[ieklanus-blog]

Meet the brave Kurdish woman fighting Isis

To an ISIS militant, one of the worst things that could transpire in combat is not just being killed, but being killed by a woman. If this happens, ISIS members believe that they will go directly to hell. If hell exists, rest assured that they have been sent there by a number of Kurdish women.

In August 2014, ISIS moved to the Sinjar area of Iraq and began to persecute, capture and kill its minority Yazidi population–an ancient, mainly Kurdish people. Female Kurdish soldiers were instrumental in the Kurdish counteroffensive, rescuing thousands of Yazidis trapped by ISIS on Mount Sinjar. The women have since extended their fight against radical militants to Kobani, Syria.

Many of these Kurdish women compose the female branch of the YPG militia, which, along with PKK (a Kurdish nationalist party) guerrillas and US-backed peshmergas (recognized Kurdish soldiers), have been fighting ISIS back and providing humanitarian aid to local populations for nearly the past year.

Anywhere from 7,000 to 10,000 women form the all-female branch of the YPG–the YPJ–and are usually 18 to 25 years old. Influenced by the Marxist-Leninist thought of jailed PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan, the Kurdish nationalist party demands that gender equality be re-instated, making women’s “liberation” a key component of the party’s nationalist project.

Political and territorial gains by ISIS, which seeks to severely curtail the rights of women, thus represent not just an international security threat. To Kurdish nationalists, it sets the dream of an independent Kurdish state that much further in the distance.

Why Kurdistan?

Kurdistan encompasses parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, which makes its people particularly vulnerable to the conflicts engulfing the region–and stand to benefit from a weakening Iraqi state.

Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century, Allied forces attempted to create several countries within the empire’s former boundaries, Kurdistan being one of them.

This did not end up happening for a number of reasons, and millions of Kurds were left without a state of their own. Since then, members of the PKK–labeled a terrorist organization by the United States, NATO and the European Union, among others–have been engaged in a long-standing fight with Turkey, and are looking for ways to gain international support for their cause.

Beyond providing humanitarian support, one such way seems to be through pumping its female fighters to the West. According to Jacob Russell, a photojournalist who has lived in Kurdistan for nearly two years, both international media and Kurdish politicians see the PR potential of “girls with guns” and have objectified these women, presenting a false, vaguely glamorous reality to Western audiences clamoring to see ISIS’ downfall–and “empowered” women leading the fight.

Said Russell in an interview with CNN, “A lot of the women’s backstories were quite difficult. It seemed like this unit provided an alternative network for women who maybe would struggle in normal Kurdish society, because despite being relatively progressive (within the Middle East), it is still quite a conservative society.”

Regardless of PKK political objectives, many feminists praise the YPJ for “confronting traditional gender expectations in the region” and “redefining the role of women in conflict [there].” According to photojournalist Erin Trieb, “the YPJ is in itself a feminist movement, even if it is not their main mission…they want ‘equality’ between women and men, and a part of why they joined was to develop and advance the perceptions about women in their culture. They can be strong and be leader.”

Perhaps put better by 18-year-old Kurdish fighter Saria Zilan, “In the past, women had various roles in the society, but all those roles were taken from them. We are here now to take back the role of women in society.”

What becomes of ISIS and Kurdistan remains to be seen. Rest assured, though, that women will play a substantial role in determining the fate of both.

By Savannah Cox Source: Newsha Tavakolian

[nansheonearth]

The Kurdish Female Guerrillas Fighting ISIS (Warzone Documentary)

[ritchiepage2001newaccount]

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

YPG/YPJ fighters tell what Öcalan means to them [UPDATES]

https://anfenglish.com/news/ypg-ypj-fighters-tell-what-Oecalan-means-to-them-22851

Fighters from the YPG and YPJ explained the importance of Abdullah Öcalan, his ideas in their struggle for freedom, and for the liberation of Raqqa from ISIS...

RELATED UPDATE: Rojava: A Practical Example of Ecosocialism?

https://www.resilience.org/stories/2019-08-12/rojava-a-practical-example-of-ecosocialism/

RELATED UPDATE: PKK leader jailed in Turkey sends message to Arab tribes in northeast Syria

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/20512-PKK-leader-jailed-in-Turkey-sends-message-to-Arab-tribes-in-northeast-Syria

RELATED UPDATE: Kurdish Women's Protection Unit: YPJ, the fierce all-women force which fought to eliminate Islamic State

https://www.wionews.com/photos/kurdish-womens-protection-unit-ypj-the-fierce-fighting-force-which-fought-to-eliminate-islamic-state-258130#us-soldier-wears-ypj-badge-258118

RELATED UPDATE: YPJ, YPG fighters: We to struggle till liberating the leader physically

http://www.hawarnews.com/en/haber/ypj-ypg-fighters-we-to-struggle-till-liberating-the-leader-physically-h22931.html

RELATED UPDATE: YPJ, YPG fighters pledged to follow Ocalan approach

http://www.hawarnews.com/en/haber/ypj-ypg-fighters-pledged-to-follow-ocalan-approach-h27090.html

RELATED UPDATE: The Clintons Are Making a TV Show About Female Kurdish Fighters. That’s Absurd.

https://jacobinmag.com/2021/01/hillary-chelsea-clinton-tv-show-kurdish-fighters-ypj

RELATED UPDATE: The disgraceful spectacle of Hillary Clinton’s YPJ mini-series

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/disgraceful-spectacle-hillary-clintons-ypj-mini-series

RELATED UPDATE: End 23 years of unjust and inhumane imprisonment

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/end-23-years-unjust-and-inhumane-imprisonment-freedom-abdullah-ocalan-now

RELATED UPDATE: Newroz Day 2022: From Kawa to Ocalan resistance continues

http://www.hawarnews.com/en/haber/newroz-day-2022-from-kawa-to-ocalan-resistance-continues-h29667.html

RELATED UPDATE: TEV-DEM: Yazidis must be protected from the threat of genocide

https://anfenglishmobile.com/kurdistan/tev-dem-yazidis-must-be-protected-from-the-threat-of-genocide-59413

RELATED UPDATE: Kurds protest against Turkish offensive in France and Canada

https://anfenglishmobile.com/news/kurds-protest-against-turkish-offensive-in-france-and-canada-59534

RELATED UPDATE: 50 young people from Rojava join the guerrilla ranks

https://anfenglishmobile.com/kurdistan/50-young-people-from-rojava-join-the-guerrilla-ranks-59866

RELATED UPDATE: Besê Hozat: A coalition led by HDP will democratize Turkey and lead it to a free and just future

https://anfenglishmobile.com/kurdistan/bese-hozat-a-coalition-led-by-hdp-will-democratize-turkey-and-lead-it-to-a-free-and-just-future-59878

[ritchiepage2001newaccount]

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

The Women Who Fought to Defend Their Homes Against ISIS [UPDATES]

https://time.com/5940848/syria-women-fought-against-isis/

When I first asked the American special operations soldiers who among the fighters they worked with I should meet in Syria, one of the first names that always arose was Azeema. She came from Qamishli, a town in northeastern Syria, and was known for her relentless willingness to lead from the front, her swashbuckling manner, her chain-smoking ways and her wry sense of humor. She was part of the Women’s Protection Units, the all-women’s force that faced off against ISIS on the ground each day, fighting the men of the Islamic State room-by-room and house-by-house, and she had started fighting ISIS in 2013 before the group was officially born. In Kobani, a town few outside Syria had heard of before the Islamic State’s stunning string of wins in 2014, Azeema came to lead women and men in the fight against the extremists of ISIS who wanted to impose their unique brand of terror on Kobani’s streets. She felt from the start that Kobani would never fall to ISIS, but for a few months in the fall of 2014, her prediction looked nearly impossible to believe. Even the Americans, who from the air supported this band of Syrian Kurds, worried openly that their air power would not be enough to stop the men of the Islamic State from adding Kobani to its list of victories. But Azeema never felt differently, even while she and her fellow fighters battled the men of ISIS each day...

RELATED UPDATE: WATCH How a small but powerful band of women led the fight against ISIS

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-a-small-but-powerful-band-of-women-led-the-fight-against-isis

RELATED UPDATE: Daughters of Kobani author on how Kurdish women fighters in Syria became ‘world’s best hope against Isis’

https://inews.co.uk/news/world/daughters-of-kobani-gayle-tzemach-lemmon-book-kurdish-women-fighters-syria-1095160

RELATED UPDATE: ‘Now I’ve a purpose’: why more Kurdish women are choosing to fight

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jul/19/came-to-fight-stayed-for-the-freedom-why-more-kurdish-women-are-taking-up-arms

RELATED UPDATE: Yazidi women fight back

https://www.newframe.com/from-the-archive-yazidi-women-fight-back/

RELATED UPDATE: Afghan and Kurdish women revolutionaries urge joined up global resistance

https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2021/08/28/afghan-and-kurdish-women-revolutionaries-urge-joined-up-global-resistance/

RELATED UPDATE: Argentine writer and journalist: Kurds, Armenians must fight together against neo-Ottomanism

https://www.hawarnews.com/en/haber/argentine-writer-and-journalist-kurds-armenians-must-fight-together-against-neo-ottomanism-h27221.html

RELATED UPDATE: ‘If you are Kurdish the way is the prison’. The harsh reality for those opposing Turkey’s fascistic regime.

https://www.thecanary.co/opinion/2021/12/23/if-you-are-kurdish-the-way-is-the-prison-the-harsh-reality-for-those-opposing-turkeys-fascistic-regime/

RELATED UPDATE: Journalism is becoming a responsibility in Turkey, Kurdish media workers tell the Morning Star

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/journalism-becoming-responsibility-turkey-kurdish-media-workers-tell-morning-star

RELATED UPDATE: Kalkan: The guerrilla resistance in 2021 represents a high point of our revolutionary life

https://anfenglishmobile.com/features/kalkan-the-guerrilla-resistance-in-2021-represents-a-high-point-of-our-revolutionary-life-57444

RELATED UPDATE: Female inmates subject to disciplinary action in Kocaeli prison for chanting name of dead prisoner

https://stockholmcf.org/female-inmates-subject-to-disciplinary-action-in-kocaeli-prison-for-chanting-name-of-dead-prisoner/

RELATED UPDATE: YJA Star fighter: Turkish incursion will come to a deadlock in South Kurdistan

https://anfenglishmobile.com/kurdistan/yja-star-fighter-turkish-incursion-will-come-to-a-deadlock-in-south-kurdistan-57450

RELATED UPDATE: Families of martyrs from Afrin: We stand with the resistance of Kobane people

https://anfenglishmobile.com/rojava-syria/families-of-martyrs-from-afrin-we-stand-with-the-resistance-of-kobane-people-57454

RELATED UPDATE: Jailed politician Aysel Tuğluk is having further trouble with speaking and reading

https://anfenglishmobile.com/news/jailed-politician-aysel-tugluk-is-having-further-trouble-with-speaking-and-reading-57456

RELATED UPDATE: People’s Initiative begins many activities to de-list PKK from terrorism list

https://hawarnews.com/en/haber/peoples-initiative-begins-many-activities-to-de-list-pkk-from-terrorism-list-h28613.html

RELATED UPDATE: WATCH Families’ vigil at Semalka on day 100

https://anfenglishmobile.com/rojava-syria/families-vigil-at-semalka-on-day-100-57458