Proposed Military Strike on Syria

John Dolva · February 15, 2015

Most people in the US have not heard of Kobanê and Suruç but they will hear about these places today as word of the bombing this morning at the Suruç border crossing comes across the news today. People in the US have been kept in the dark about the revolution in Rojava, the fight to save Kobanê and the great victory there. In the aftermath of the victory in Kobanê city, however, some news from, the region is getting through.

Three people were wounded today in a blast at the police point near the Arin Mirxan Tent City in Suruç. The tent city is run by the people and the progressive municipality at Suruç and there is a border crossing there. We should also say that the tent city is named in memory of a brave woman fighter martyred in the struggle to liberate Kobanê from the ISIS gangs and that there are frequently demonstrations held there against ISIS and in support of the Kobanê resistance.

The explosion happened as the result of an explosive device detonating inside a garbage container at the police point. An initial report said that the bomb was detonated by a remote control device. The people who were hurt were one police officer, a sixteen-year-old and a twenty-five-year-old. All were taken to a nearby hospital. The Party of Democratic Regions (DBP) Urfa provincial co-chair İsmail Kaplan said about a previous bombing there that the aim was to disturb the Kobanê citizens and to drive them to the state-run refugee camp.

In other news from Suruç today, it was announced that Fatma Mihemed (22) miscarried there after Turkish emergency services refused to send an ambulance to the Şehit Gelhat tent city, unreasonably citing a lack of security. Fatma Mihemed is twenty-two-years-old and is a refugee from Kobanê. The Şehit Gelhat tent city in Suruç is also a people-run center named after a martyr of the freedom struggle killed in the fighting in the region.

Fatma Mihemed was six months pregnant when she began to experience labor pains and called the ‘112’ emergency number. When she was told that an ambulance could not be sent due to a lack of security she was taken to hospital by volunteers. She said that doctors at the Suruç state hospital had refused to attend to her. She was then taken to the Antep state hospital where doctors told her she had miscarried, but that if there had been an intervention an hour earlier she would not have miscarried.

Fatma Mihemed's husband, Ömer Mihemed, said that the authorities were constantly harassing them to stay at the state-run AFAD camp, adding, "Just because we are staying at the Şehit Gelhat tent city the ambulance didn’t come. They want us to go to the AFAD camp. They killed our baby. We won’t go to their camp even if they kill us.”

Meanwhile, it has been announced that representatives from the Regional Parliament in Federal (South) Kurdistan and a delegation from Rojava’s Afrîn Canton have crossed into Kobanê after completing meetings in Suruç.

Deputies Ali Halo, Salar Mahmood, Mohammededali Yaseen Taha, Evar İbrahim Hussein, Najeeba Lateef Ahmed, Kamal Yalda Margooz, Bahar Abdulrahman Mohammed, Parwa Ali Hama and Amanj İsmael Othman from the Parliament in Federal (South) Kurdistan travelled to Suruç today after completing their meetings in Amed. In Suruç they visited the municipality together with a delegation from the Afrîn Canton of Rojava.

They were met at the municipality by People’s Democratic Party (HDP) Urfa MP İbrahim Ayhan, Senanik Öner and Feleknas Uca from the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) and Suruç Co-mayor Zuhal Ekmez. A discussion was held at the municipality regarding the reconstruction of Kobanê. Following the discussion the delegation went to Kobanê through the Mürşitpınar border gate.

In Kobanê the People’s Defense Forces (YPG) and Women’s Defense Forces (YPJ) carried out several successful operations against ISIS gangs on the southwest, south and east fronts of Kobanê and liberated 5 villages in the last 24 hours. YPG and YPJ forces liberated Qoşliya Jêrîn and Gobelek to the southwest, Feyaz and Belek villages to the south and Minîşgor village to the east region of Kobanê Canton. Six ISIS fighters were killed in these operations. YPG also forces attacked ISIS gangs in Derfitlî village, killing 2 ISIS fighters there.

John Dolva · February 16, 2015

Mass protests in North Kurdistan, Turkey, Rojava and Europe against the imprisonment of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan

Context and analysis

On February 15, 1999, Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan was captured in Kenya by Turkish special agents acting in cooperation with the CIA and Mossad while traveling from the Greek embassy to the Nairobi airport. He was then considered to be the most wanted person by Turkish authorities as the Kurdish people were waging a mass uprising against the policies of denial and discrimination while the state and paramilitary forces were answering with particular brutality and policies which reminded us of the pacification programs carried out by the US in Viet Nam. Abdullah Öcalan had emerged as a primary leader of the freedom movement in the 1980s, one of a long line of people's leaders. Today we look at his capture as the outcome of an international conspiracy involving the security services of several nations, including the CIA, MI5 and Mossad. Still, Abdullah Öcalan's continued and unjust imprisonment on Imrali island has not stopped him from developing certain theories which guide much of the Kurdish freedom movement today and has not stopped him from initiating a peace or resolution process with the Turkish state.

Abdullah Öcalan's most recent work and the realization of some of his ideas in Rojava's advanced revolution has helped to move the Kurdish struggle into the international arena once more and has given Abdullah Öcalan and his case much international recognition. Mass protests on behalf of Abdullah Öcalan in recent days have been carried out across Turkey, in North Kurdistan and in Europe drawing in hundreds of thousands of people. Today these protests and protests over the murder of Ozgecan Aslan, which we detailed yesterday on this blog, took over the streets in many areas and the authorities responded with heavy-handed crackdowns. Today is known as “Roja Reş," or Black Day, for people who mark the international conspiracy carried out against Abdullah Öcalan and the Kurdish freedom movement.

Abdullah Öcalan's capture was followed by a show trial with Turkish prosecutors seeking to portray him as a terrorist. A strong effort was made at the trial to use the trial as a means of advocating for peace and reconciliation between Turks and Kurds based on the recognition of their cultural and national differences within a unitary state and Abdullah Öcalan was somewhat successful in this effort. Still, he was originally given a death sentence and for many years he was held in solitary confinement under terrible conditions on Imrali island off the coast of Istanbul. Mass pressure and great legal work combined to win him a life imprisonment sentence but he remains in Imrali. His health deteriorated, but he continued to work for justice and liberation and developed a platform which has led to detailed proposals calling on both sides to take steps to bring about a permanent end to the conflict.

If relations with the Turkish state have been tough going, Abdullah Öcalan also advocated a unilateral ceasefire for Kurdish guerrillas and has sometimes taken a pragmatic approach to political questions. The ceasefire and his pragmatism have not always succeeded in the short-run. Under Abdullah Öcalan's leadership sectors of the Kurdish movement have abandoned Marxism and he has a dedicated following who are called "Apoists." If we have not always agreed with Abdullah Öcalan or understood his logic, we still acknowledge his leadership, his special role and the need for his freedom.

Abdullah Öcalan is a political prisoner and should be understood and supported in the same way that we supported Mandela. Because of his work we may yet see a generally peaceful conclusion to the conflict based on the achievement of justice for the Kurdish people and the creation of real “democratic autonomy” inside Turkey for Kurds and others. Under such a system local decision-making powers in the regions over social and cultural rights (such as the use of the Kurdish language and mother-tongue education, for instance) will be held by the people and the necessary political institutions to implement this will be in place. We do not think that this is a kind of utopia, and we do not think that it settles all questions, but we recognize that it is a necessary democratic struggle and that certain rights must be won and upheld across the region in order to ensure forward movement. On such a basis, then, other mass struggles will certainly occur and drive the revolution forward.

The future is always in the present, but what is most clear today is that Abdullah Öcalan's imprisonment has failed to eliminate the Kurdish movement and that his position has been strengthened in recent months as the successes of this movement have also grown. The "criminal" and "terrorist" labels can't hold as the peace or resolution process moves forward and as Rojava's revolution advances and ISIS faces defeats.The ruling reactionary Justice and Development Party (AKP) may or may not hold power in Turkey after the coming elections, but the AKP faces international isolation regardless of the outcome of the elections in part because of Abdullah Öcalan's continuing imprisonment and in part because of their stand on Syria while the Kurdish freedom movement has done more for peace and freedom there. In this sense, also, we can say that the Kurdish freedom movement has gained by waging a protracted struggle and we can note as well that there is an uneven struggle to control the clock and that the Kurdish side seems to be winning for the time being.

Grim news

Still, the news today is rather grim. Kurdish businesses were shuttered in the Kurdish regions of Turkey in order to condemn and protest the international conspiracy. Diyarbakır and the Lice, Bağlar, Kayapınar, Sur, Bismil, Silvan, Ergani, Dicle districts, Van and its districts, Hakkari, Yüksekova, Şemdinli, Çukurca, Ağrı and its Doğubayazıt, Diyadin, Tutak and Patnos districts, Muş, its Bulanık, Malazgirt and Varto districts, Bitlis, Tatvan, Hizan, Mutki, Güroymak, Karayazı, Karaçoban, Hınıs, Kağızman, Digor, Iğdır, Tuzluca, Mardin, its Dargeçit, Nusaybin, Kızıltepe, Derik districts, Dersim, Urfa's Viranşehir and Halfeti districts, Şırnak and its Cizre, Silopi, İdil, Uludere and Beytüşebap districts, Batman and its districts all saw protests today. Some people simply hung black clothes outside and did not go out to the streets. The Party of Democratic Regions (DBP) and the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) provincial and district organizations also hung black banners on their buildings. Apart from bakeries and pharmacies, all shops remained closed in the region.

Police took extraordinarily repressive measures to head off the protest movement but people in North Kurdistan poured out into the streets in spite of these measures. Clashes broke out after police denied permission for marches in some centers. For instance, police denied permission for a march set to be staged by thousands of people who gathered in Van and set up blockades to stop the demonstration. Confrontations developed in Yüksekova, Silopi, Cizre, Hakkari, Şemdinli, Van and Diyarbakır between police and people holding marches on the main roads. The police intervened with gas and percussion bombs and plastic bullets---and live ammunition in some areas---and young people responded with fireworks, Molotov cocktails and stones. The illegal Patriotic and Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H) led some of the resistance today. It was reported early in the day that many young people have been arrested and some people were slightly wounded in the clashes.

Women protest and lead

Meanwhile, yesterday's protests by women across Turkey to commemorate Ozgecan Aslan and fight against violence against women were successful to the extent that these were mass mobilizations carried out by women as part of a united struggle. Ozgecan Aslan was brutally killed after resisting an attempted rape and then burned last week. She was a twenty-year-old psychology student, an Alevi person, and her death sparked particular outrage and mobilizations. Protests were held in Ankara, Istanbul, and Mersin where Ozgecan Aslan was from. In Istanbul, women activists held two separate protests to show their anger at the murder. Hundreds of women gathered behind a banner that read "Enough, we will stop the murder of women!" and the crowds increased through the day and into the evening as thousands more women of all ages and walks of life joined in. Progressive media quoted one woman as saying, "It is the result of the radical Islamic atmosphere created by the government. The men say that women should be conservative. They think if they are not conservative, they deserve this kind of violence." While this struggle stands on its own two feet with compelling strength, we must say that Abdullah Öcalan and the most progressive sections of the Kurdish movement and Rojava's revolution have identified women as a leading force in the revolution.

We should also mention that protests this week led by the progressive Eğitim-Sen trade union and Alevi associations and supported by many disparate left-wing forces for secular, democratic, scientific and mother-tongue education helped move people into the streets yesterday and today.

Repression

Returning to the protests in support of Abdullah Öcalan today then, we will note that at least 17 people were detained in Şırnak for joining today's protests. One report set the number of those detained at 23. Special operations police teams detained four young people in the Vakıfkent neighborhood. The police entered the neighborhood in armored vehicles, their faces covered, and fired randomly at people there before taking the four teenagers into custody. In the Zap neighborhood a sixteen-year-old as taken into custody while on his way to the People's Democratic Party (HDP) district office in Silopi. A twelve-year-old was also taken into custody by policemen on Arin Mirxan (İdil) Avenue in the Cizre district, an area considered as liberated territory by the liberation movement.

We also have the following to report:

* Two teenagers were taken into custody in Mersin's Akdeniz district following the demonstration there.

* Police attacked the rally staged in the Doğubeyazıt district of Ağrı. The police attack came after a march condemning the international plot against Abdullah Öcalan. Seven people detained at the rally were taken to Uluyol police station.

* Tens of thousands of people came together in Amed (Diyarbakır) and demanded freedom for Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan. Democratic Society Congress (DTK) Co-chair Selma Irmak, Diyarbakır Metropolitan Co-mayor Gültan Kışanak, DBP General Co-chair Emine Ayna, and other progressive leaders led the mass march. People rallied under the slogans "Long live Leader Apo," "We will turn upside down a world without Öcalan," "There will be no life without our Leader" and "Damn the February 15 conspiracy." People also carried banners saying "We invalidate the international plot with the victory of Kobanê," "We will liberate our leadership" and "We curse the February 15 conspiracy" along with massive posters of Öcalan, pioneering cadres of the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), Rojava's People's/Women's Defense Forces (YPG/YPJ) fighters, the flags of the PKK and the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) and the guerrilla movements.

The people held one minute of silence in memory of all those who have lost their lives in the struggle for freedom and sung the national anthem "Ey Reqip." Party of Democratic Regions (DBP) General Co-chair Emine Ayna spoke at the rally and said, "This conspiracy was forced on all of the Kurdish people and Kurdistan in the person of Öcalan. President Apo will address Turkey and Kurdistan in Amed. Women and youth became the willpower of Öcalan. So, Öcalan's freedom is the freedom of all society."

DTK (Democratic Society Congress) Co-chair and HDP (Peoples' Democratic Party) MP Selma Irmak spoke and cursed the conspiracy. She stated, "Kurdish people are seeing this day as 'balck day.' They aimed at humane values in the person of Öcalan. Until Öcalan is liberated, our fire of resistance will always burn. The will of Dear Leader Apo devastated the walls of Imrali Prison. If you want peace, open the doors of Imrali."

Police intervened after the speeches and clashes were continuing when we heard of this.

Meanwhile, there is the resolution process and international events

The demonstrations took place with particular events underway and we must mention that the HDP (Peoples' Democratic Party) delegation working on the peace and resolution process with Abdullah Öcalan has released a statement regarding their most recent meeting with Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) leaders in liberated Kandil on February 13-14. The delegation must travel between Abdullah Öcalan in Imrali prison, Kandil and the KCK leadership and their meetings with the state.

The HDP said that the women members of their delegation also met with the women's organization at Kandil.

We will apologize here for only being able to give a rough translation of an crucial HDP statement. We refer readers to many previous posts on this blog concerning the proposed internal security package mentioned here.

The main agenda item of the meeting with the KCK leaders in Kandil was the steps needed to be taken as part of the resolution process, the internal security package submitted to the Parliament and most recent developments in the Middle East, Kobanê and Sinjar being in the first place. We think that these events are connected to one another and must be analyzed in their relationship to one another by the freedom movement and with particular sensitivity and understanding.

According to the HDP statement, the KCK leadership stated that non-initiation of the negotiation process is unacceptable, holding that the AKP-led government wasted time with their efforts to create perception management among the public over expectations that do not correspond to reality instead of working for the achievement of permanent peace under a concrete process of negotiations. The KCK leadership pointed out that agreement should have been reached by today on the title of negotiations in the negotiation and resolution draft prepared by Abdullah Öcalan, noting that the AKP government's attitude is intended to invalidate the resolution calendar and that this is opposed by the Kandil leadership.

The HDP said that the meeting in Kandil noted a lack of detail, work, negotiations and negotiation mechanisms in the AKP government's approach, and that the government seems to lack sincerity and seriousness in peace the process. According to the statement, the KCK leadership said that they support the resolution process with Abdullah Öcalan's perspective on the "democratization of the state and society," but they said that the practices of the AKP on the other hand have contradicted the democratization of the state and society. The KCK leadership also cited the repressive internal security package recently submitted to the Parliament by the AKP and said that with this package the AKP intended to suppress all public opposition. It was clearly stated that this package would also jeopardize the peace negotiations process and mean further authoritarianism rather than democratization and that it was not possible to accept this mindset.

The statement also said that KCK leaders put emphasis on the importance of a joint reaction and unity of NGOs and the democratic circles in Turkey against this internal package that would eliminate democratization. The KCK leadership underlined that the AKP government should bring forward not internal security packages for authoritarianism but legal arrangements for democratization, and perform concrete tasks that build a democratic future for all peoples instead of pursuing their own interests in the upcoming elections.

According to the statement, the KCK leadership stressed that the gains attained in Kobanê and Sinjar were not only for Kurds, but also for all the peoples of the region, underlining the importance of the peoples continuing the same awareness in the coming process. It was added that the KCK closely follows the regional developments that will determine the democratic future and peace of all peoples.

Hackers engage in a solidarity action

In other related news, the Kurdish hacker group Coldhackers carried out a cyber attack on a number of websites in protest against the February 15 international plot against Abdullah Öcalan. The websites of the Diyarbakır Union of Chamber of Merchants and Craftsmen and Yurtmedya and Erzincan University were among the dozens of addresses targeted by the Kurdish hacker group. "Down with the international February 15 conspiracy from 1925 to 1999," the group said in a message published on the hacked websites, adding that "Our leader is our will and freedom. Our leader is the reason for us to live and survive. We as the Kurdish people are sacrificing for our Leader in war and peace. Life without our Leader is undeserved for us.” The message ended with salutes to Abdullah Öcalan, the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) and the liberation movement in Rojhilat (so-called "Iranian Kurdistan").

And in revolutionary Rojava the people can demonstrate

In liberated Rojava, on the other hand, people protested freely and carried out fraternal solidarity actions.

People in Rojava's Cizîre Canton stopped life to condemn the international conspiracy against Abdullah Öcalan. Shops were closed and students did not go to the schools in Qamişlo, Dêrik, Girkê Legê, Tirbespiyê, Amûdê, Dirbêsiyê, Serêkaniyê, Til Temir and the Hesekê cities of Cizîrê Canton. The Democratic Autonomous Administration and all the official institutions affiliated with the administration stopped their work to protest the plot against Abdullah Öcalan.

The Rojava Cantons General Coordination also issued a written statement condemning the international conspiracy against Abdullah Öcalan. The statement said that the conspiracy of February 15, 1999 was an attempt to deny the rights of the Kurdish people. “We vehemently condemn the international conspiracy against Abdullah Öcalan. The aims of the conspiracy have been foiled by the historic resistance in Kobanê. The defeat of the gangs is evidence of this,” the statement said.

The Rojava Cantons General Coordination called on the international community and judicial institutions to exert pressure on Turkey in order for Öcalan to have a fair trial and for political obstacles placed against the Kurds to be lifted.

The people of Kobanê who defeated the occupation attempt by ISIS through their historic resistance also condemned the international plot against Abdullah Öcalan. Hundreds of people---many of them women dressed in black---gathered at the Kobanê martyrs' cemetery in solidarity with the struggle. Black banners condemning the plot and the flags of TEV-DEM (the Democratic Society Movement) and the People's/Women's Defense Forces (YPG/YPJ) and posters of Abdullah Öcalan were put up. One minute of silence was held in memory of the Kobanê martyrs.

İsa Kobanê spoke on behalf of TEV-DEM and condemned the plot saying, “Those planning to destroy the will of the Kurdish people in the person of our leader through his imprisonment have been defeated by the march of the freedom struggle. The people of Kurdistan woke up with the philosophy of their leader, took strength from him and marched.” İsa Kobanê stressed that those who intended to continue this plot with attacks on Rojava's revolution have once again been defeated in Kobanê, where it has been proven once again that the Kurdish movement based on Öcalan's philosophy cannot be defeated.

Mistefa İto spoke on behalf of the families of the martyrs and said that it was the philosophy of Öcalan that has led Kobanê to victory.

Violence in Ceylanpınar

It was reported from Turkey today that the bodyguards of the AKP mayor of Ceylanpınar in Urfa province opened fire on a workplace in the town and killed one person and wounded 9 others. It is not clear to us what sparked this violence.

The bodyguards of Ceylanpınar mayor, Menderes Atilla, opened fire with rifles from a vehicle at an office belonging to Şahan Lojistik Limited. One of the wounded men is a bodyguard of the mayor. Following the incident the bodyguards apparently also opened fire at random in the town center. Extra police were deployed in the town as people flocked to the hospital and tension continued.

Posted by Urun Harvest at 10:14 PM No comments:

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John Dolva · February 17, 2015

Damascus, Feb 17 (Prensa Latina) The Syrian army clashed today members of the terrorist group Islamic State (IS) when they tried to steel oil from the pipeline located in Jazal, Palmira, east of Homs Province.

It was also reported clashes in a pipeline on the region of al-Dawara, North of Palmira, where armed extremnists tried to steel oil too.

Spokesmen from the armed forces confirmed they continued offensive operations en Northern and Eastern zones of Homs province, 162 kilometers north of the capital, causing several victims to the groups that oppose the government and destroying war material.

The reports also account for actions against terrorist groups in the province of Daraa, 103 kilometers south of Damascus, where some shelters of the the armed groups in Deraa al Balad were bombed.

Terrorist groups from Al-Nusra Front were eliminated in the zone of Lajat and the army keeps air and artillery attacks against the rebel camps in the towns of Akraba, Kaffer Nassej, Dael and Muzereeib.

Sc/rc/mfm Modificado el ( martes, 17 de febrero de 2015 )

John Dolva · February 20, 2015

"We are ready to unite the 3 cantons of Rojava"---Commander Azime Deniz talks to the ANF

Rojava's YPG/YPJ (People's/Women's Defense Units) fighters launched a second wave of operations to liberate the villages of Kobanê on January 27, one day after the town center was cleansed of ISIS gangs as a result of the134-day historic resistance to the attacks of ISIS gangs that first started on September 15. A number of villages on the western, eastern and southern fronts of Kobanê have been liberated so far as part of the ongoing operations, as the YPG/YPJ continue forcing the ISIS gangs to withdraw with heavy losses.

YPJ Commander Azime Deniz talked to the ANF news service about the second wave of operations and said that victory in Kobanê was close and that they would soon give good news of the liberation of the entire lands of the Kobanê Canton.

'Gangs fleeing to the Turkish border'

Azime Deniz said that they have seized strategic points that could pose a danger to the city and the surrounding villages in the first days of the second operation which was started soon after the liberation of Kobanê's town center thanks to the self-sacrificing spirit of the fighters. She said that successful operations are continuing on all three fronts of Kobanê, with hand-to-hand fighting taking place in some areas and that the YPG/YPJ forces have raised their flag in all of the areas where they conducted operations.

The YPJ Commander pointed out that they gave the ISIS gangs no opportunity for further attacks, adding, "Gang groups in many areas have started to flee after their attack was broken as a result of effective operations. From time to time we observed them heading to the Turkish border. We have given them no opportunity to launch an attack during the recent operations going on in the west, east and south. They carried out attacks with an aim to deter our operation, but YPG/YPJ fighters broke all these attacks every time."

'We took no single step backward'

Azime Deniz said that the ISIS gangs have been in a passive defense position, and laying mines in the villages where YPG/YPJ forces are conducting operations and said that "They are positioning snipers in some villages. They are exercising all their power in the areas they hold but cannot hold on in the face of the tactics and strategy we are pursuing. The ISIS gangs are not leaving the battle field by clashing with us, they are just turning their back and fleeing, which indicates the fact that they are not withdrawing but are being forced to flee after their attacks are broken. We have taken no single step backward at Kobanê town center and the areas where we have succeeded as part of the second wave of operations. We have rather reinforced our positions in the places we have regained."

'Victory is close'

YPJ Commander Azime Deniz underlined that they will be continuing the second wave of operations without ceasing until ISIS is driven out of every single inch of Kobanê, noting that they are currently in an active defense and assault position. She said that victory in Kobanê is close, adding, "The gangs will not be able to resist our determination and will. We are close to have control over the whole territory of Kobanê. We will soon give the good news of the liberation of the entire lands of the Kobanê Canton."

'We will be there wherever there exists a threat against the Kurdish people and territory'

Azime Deniz said that they will be ready to fight against all the threats targeting the Kurdish people and territory once the second wave of operations ends, adding, “We will be there to defend our people and territory wherever there exists a threat against them, in Girê Spî (Tal Abyad), Minbic, Jarablus or anywhere else. With great strength and morale, we are also ready to unite the three cantons of Rojava.”

The YPJ Commander greeted all those who provided support to the Kobanê resistance and have personally taken part in the resistance, adding that the victory will be for Kobanê and the three cantons of Rojava.

Despite Promises, the Kurdistan Democratic Party Failed To Protect Yezidi Community

Xeyrî Şengalî

The following piece is a translation of report written by Kawa Husen for ROJEWS in Sulaymaniyah and was carried by Özgür Gündem. It has been translated into English below. We are using the version provided by the good people at The Rojava Report.

Before the ISIS attacks on Şengal (Sinjar) which began on August 3rd, 2014 officials from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) had told local Yezidis that “there are 12 thousand Peshmerga and Zêrevan to protect you” says prominent Yezidi Xeyrî Şengalî. However Şengalî noted that when ISIS did attack the local peshmerga failed to protect them, saying “these forces told us not to worry about ourselves and that they would protect us. However later when they basically fled from Şengal the Yezidi people were left to face the bloody attacks of ISIS. As a result we have 14 thousand Yezidis dead or taken prisoner.”

Nothing Was Done For The Yezidis

“Until now the KRG has not done one of the necessary things for the Yezidis. Everything that has been done up until now has been done by aid organizations or other groups” Şengalî said. He added that the Yezidi community continues to face many problems and that certain people in Kurdistan continue to ask why they do not become Muslims. He continued by noting that the Yezidis had never been allowed to have a force to protect themselves, saying “in fact they look upon this with hostility. Today there are 3 thousand Yezidis on Şengal mountain. After the peshmerga fled from Şengal the Yezidis here made a decision to protect themselves and organized for this. However certain groups were opposed to this and actually forced many to say ‘We are peshmerga for the KDP and Barzani.’”

On the subject of the newly formed Constitutive Assembly of the Yezidis, Şengalî said “all political factions should be united and should work to protect the lands of the Yezidis while staying away from narrow party interests.”

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The language of revolution connects us: the MLKP builds an international brigade in Rojava

The following comes from the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) in Rojava. We have not done much editing of this document because we think that it speaks clearly to the views of the MLKP and details their efforts to build a real international brigade in Rojava and across the region. We have previously mentioned the MLKP's work and the many MLKP members, again mentioned below, who have given their lives in the revolutionary liberation struggle in Rojava, Sinjar and elsewhere in the region.

The international revolutionaries, who followed MLKP's call to come to Rojava say: To be a communist requires us to participate in this revolution. Come to defend the revolution in all languages, take part in this revolution!

Some of them got to know Rojava through revolutionaries from Turkey and said "I've got to be there" and came here. Others asked themselves "Being a European, do I have a responsibility regarding the current cruelties in the Middle East?" and came here. Some came from the Black Sea to the land of revolution.

The Spanish communists Paco and Martos, the European communists Thälmann, Ernesto and Avaşin together with the Turkish communists Deniz Özgür and Arya Yeter, are in Rojava. They are there to establish the international unit, which the MLKP is helping to prepare and participates in.

The combatants, still in formation,have formed a brigade at the front and hold the line in Serêkaniye.

Paco and Martos, who form part of the battalion's preparation process, defend the revolution on behalf of their organization Reconstrucción Comunista (Communist Reconstruction) from Spain. The organization Communist Reconstruction already realized joint revolutionary work with comrades from Turkey and Kurdistan and decided to show solidarity with the Rojava Revolution.

"We could not remain inactive regarding a revolution"

Paco, one of the Spanish revolutionaries, stated the reason for his participation in the revolution quite clearly during his military education: "Being Marxists-Leninists, we refused to sit around while a revolution is happening over here. We came here to fight together with Marxists-Leninists."

Paco stresses the fact that the Kurdish people have been fighting the repressive methods of Turkey and Iran for years: "Now it is the IS gang's turn to terrorize the Kurdish people. We're here to fight these fascist forces together with the Kurdish people and the Marxist communists."

The Spanish communist Martos adds, "The Rojava Revolution is a war against fascist forces, the IS gangs. This is the reason why we are here. This revolution is also an example for the revolutions all over the world. We're here to spread the revolution."

Having passed some time in Rojava, Martos summarizes his observations: "I've seen the will of the Kurdish people, which has been assimilated for years and still is ready to resist." Paco and Martos from Communist Reconstruction close with a message to all the revolutionaries and communists all over the world: "The Kurdish people resist. We as Marxists-Leninists have to show our solidarity. Maybe not every organization is able to send its militants here, but there are other ways of solidarity and carrying the revolution into the world's conscience.”

Communists have to take part in this revolution

Meanwhile, the international work of MLKP to win different organizations from Europe to Latin America to participate continues and party members from different nationalities from Europe have decided to join the revolution. Thälmann Demircioğlu is one of them.

Thälmann Demircioğlu has defined himself as a communist for three years now and tells us that he learned about the Kurdish liberation movement after he had got to know MLKP. He adds, "I asked myself 'Where is my place?' I'm not a Kurd. But colonialism's arm has also touched me, as the land I come from forms part of imperialism as well and is one of those responsible for the the situation here. To be a communists means having the task to come here and defend the revolution. This is why I came here. And every communist has to ask himself 'What is my role, what is my share? What do I have to do?”

Thälmann Demircioğlu receives education in the battalion and has joined the Serêkaniyê front. "I was very excited when I was told after my education that I form part of the group that is going to the front. Before I had seen war and combat only on television or in photos. After passing my training it was my turn. I was very excited when I went to the front for the first time."

He tells us that a new life is being built up in Rojava. It is of great importance for all people. His revolutionary message to the world is: "The imperialists claim that there are neither revolution nor class struggle in the 21st century. But here in Rojava there is an actual revolution. For this reason all communists and internationalists should come here to defend the revolution with weapons in their hands. The experiences gathered here have to be carried back to the countries to start the revolution their as well.”

The MLKP militants Avaşin and Ernesto joined the revolution from Europe and also were at the Serêkaniyê in the Alya district. The houses behind which the gangs had taken position lay before them and only a field separates them. From time to time the gangs attack with mortars and grenades. The fighters of the People's/Women's Defense Forces (YPG/YPJ) in turn carry out different actions against the gangs at night.

"I am here to raise the banner of MLKP"

Avaşin from Europe, who also is at the front, points at the IS positions and says, "We're in Serêkaniyê for one week. These are the IS positions. And we hold the line here. The Rojava Revolution defends humanity. I came here following our MLKP party's call. I'm here to defend the Rojava Revolution and humanity and to raise the international banner of the MLKP."

Avaşin calls the Rojava Revolution "our hope" and sends the following message to the people of the world: "I am here to defend freedom. I call all revolutionaries to come here in order to fight for the freedom of Rojava."

"I am very happy to be here."

From June to October 2013 there have been clashes with the IS gangs in northeastern Serêkaniyê, which was liberated house by house. MLKP combatant Ernesto, at the base in the Alya district, stresses that it's the communist's task to resist against the fascist IS. Ernesto recalls MLKP's call "to participate and defend the Rojava Revolution" and tells us how he followed this call and left Europe to come here. He adds, “I call all communists to fight in the MLKP's and YPG/YPJ's lines in Kobanê, Şengal and Serêkaniyê. Today our revolutionary task is to push back these attacks. I am very happy to be here and to experience this."

The language of revolution connects us

Deniz Özgür reminds us of the fallen MLKP fighters Serkan Tosun, Suphi Nejat Ağırnaslı, Sibel Bulut and Oğuz Saruhan, who took their places in the Rojava Revolution from its beginning and became immortal in Rojava. "Our comrades became immortal for the revolution. Cheerfully following the path of our comrades I came here to join the revolution," Deniz Özgür said.

He said that the imperialist states use the IS gangs as their instruments because the Rojava Revolution represents an alternative life for the people. He explains, "The communists have an important task to fulfill in letting the revolution in Rojava, which forms part of Kurdistan, survive. I am here to fulfill this task. I had been longing to join this revolution strongly. So my party chose me. I am very happy.”

After finishing his education, Deniz Özgür has been passing some time with other international fighters at the front. His opinion of the comrades surrounding him is very interesting. “The presence of comrades from different countries shows that we can defend the revolution in any language. First we expected to face communication problems. But we know each other very well, as it is described in the 'No Pasaran' march, which tells of the international battalions in the Spanish Civil War. We also know each other that well because we share the same thoughts regarding the future.The language of revolution and war unifies us and makes us understand each other.”

Call to the Black Sea youth

Deniz Özgür emphasizes that participation from different nations is needed. He especially addresses the youth of the Black Sea region. “All revolutionaries that see Turkey, Northern Kurdistan and the Rojava Revolution as their own future and their revolution have to be here. The Rojava Revolution is also the revolution of all the communists and revolutionaries who take part in it. This revolution is the embryonic stage of the Middle East's revolution. It's a revolution that will affect the whole Middle East and Anatolia. Being a revolutionary from the Black Sea, I call upon every youth of this region and all people whose hearts beat for humanity to come here. When we set ourselves into motion in order to 'strengthen peoples' brotherhood' we should not see this only as an idiom but as something we believe and carry out and should actually be here. We should all be here and cry out 'Long live all peoples' brotherhood!' Only crying out this slogan in Rojava will be of true importance these days. I invite every young person from the Black Sea, all Laz, everyone from Hemşin, all Greeks and all Georgians to experience this revolution and to learn.

“I am here as a communist woman”

Arya Yeter is also one of the MLKP's combatants that defend the Rojava Revolution. She thinks that this Revolution does not only serve the liberation of Rojava but is also of historical importance for the preparation of the joint revolution in Middle East, Turkey and Northern Kurdistan. Arya Yeter marks the Rojava Revolution also as a women's revolution and explains why she is in Rojava. “I am here to form part of this historically important revolution. As a communist woman I wanted to take my place in this revolution and followed our party's call and came here,” she said.

Arya Yeter is at the same front as the revolutionaries from Spain and Europe. “People from different parts of the world take part in this revolution for the first time to oppose the policy imperialism realizes with the help of the reactionary forces of the region. This is pretty important. First, this gives the Rojava Revolution hope and, furthermore, the experiences to be gathered here will play a teaching role all over the world. In this context the preparation of an international battalion all over the world should be seen as the first spark."

"This is our revolution. We're its subjects"

Arya Yeter's message is,”It's an honor to call Rojava ours. To be here means to take over the responsibility history has given us as Marxists-Leninists and whole humanity. In a merciless struggle like this, limited solidarity and observation from outside is not a sufficient reaction---neither regarding this responsibility nor to those who trample on human dignity. Women write history here, they show their longing for change and struggle in a very strong way. This revolution has shown us one more time that it's most important for women to defend the revolution. The strangulation of this revolution and the occupation of this land means also the occupation of the women's body. Therefore, my call is made primarily upon humaneness, to youth and, most important, to young women. This is our revolution. We are its subjects. This requires our participation in the revolution."

John Dolva · February 20, 2015

John Dolva · February 20, 2015

Debaltsevsky defeat, seemingly, demoralized not only the Ukrainian paramilitary groups, but also the Kiev junta. It is obvious that Poroshenko and his next accomplices finally lost faith in opportunity to win against the National Republics.

These can explain suddenly arisen idea of leaders of junta to appeal in the UN of introduction of the armed peacekeeping contingent.

We will remind that else on the eve of the last Minsk meeting in Kiev even didn't wish to hear about such opportunity.

We will note also one more moment. During negotiations Poroshenko had a fine opportunity to agree about withdrawal of troops from Debaltseve (without their disarmament) and to rescue thus the person as it could be presented as the gesture of good will made at a request and under guarantees of the French-German friends.

But instead of this Poroshenko rested as a ram, stubborn claiming that no copper is present. Valtsman's confidence in superiority of the Ukrainian formations over VSN and their abilities to keep a situation under control could be the cause of it. Also, maybe, that under the influence of Washington he set up in the agreement "mine" not of a complete situation to Debaltseve which could cause failure of the agreement in case of long fights, and even to give a reason for foreign intervention (at least in the form of arms supplies) of what Kiev dreams long ago. However, and here Poroshenko proceeded from ability of Debaltsevsky group, to conduct, at least, long battles.

However the cruel reality shattered all its plans and hopes.

Divisions of DNR and LNR, despite triple superiority of invaders, resolutely put the end to the Debaltsevsky epic and made it so quickly that the West didn't even manage to think as to it to react to an event.

Anyway the event became for Poroshenko a bolt from the blue. That speed with which the best parts of VSU were processed, caused shock.

Meetings to Artemivsk, Poroshenko fell into a panic state at all. Having decided that VSU isn't able to resist to Armies of the National Republics any more, he also brought up a question of immediate introduction of peacekeepers in SNBO.

Irreplaceable losses in manpower and arms to Debaltseve and the undermined fighting spirit of the Ukrainian invaders call into question into ability them not that to return Donbass, but also to keep other areas of Novorossiya under control of Kiev.

To try to keep the remained territories, the junta calls peacekeepers. It is obvious that any peacekeepers in the territory including on border with Russia the National Republics won't suffer including because it contradicts the Minsk agreements in which it is accurately stated that own security forces act on their territory.

If agreements which as a matter of fact, are the only link of Novorossiya with Kiev, are violated, Lugansk and Donetsk with good reason will tell that they have no relation to Ukraine, and input of peacekeepers doesn't concern them.

Thus, peacekeepers if they are entered to Ukraine, will record separation of Donbass from it. And Poroshenko it is necessary to be responsible for it before his internal competitors and rivals who are eager for his money and his head.

Source: Discussio

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Central news agency of Novorossiya
Novorus.info

John Dolva · February 21, 2015

The Kurdistan Woman’s Liberation Movement

n Kurdistan to be Kurdish was banned, to be Kurdish was made to be a source of shame. This for women meant no identity and a deeper exploitation of labour; persecution and violence had become fate.

Delal Afsin Nurhak

Kurdistan is multi-colonial. Kurdistan is not a state, but it is proud to be the biggest stateless nation of the world. There were times previously where this was bemoaned of; however, this always succumbed to the pride that came with being the Middle East’s pioneering freedom movement struggling against Imperialism. In written history – written by the sovereigns – the name of Kurdistan, its existence, its culture and its people were never mentioned. This meant that Kurdistan was to be an unknown entity which was subsequently abandoned to the mercy of the sovereign states. This led to a struggle for existence, while existing. It is for this reason that only to be born in the midst of this history forces upon you a constant mode of resistance in which great sacrifices are made. This resistance and the sacrifices that come with it, take a deeper and intensified shape for the women of Kurdistan.

Today, millions of Kurdish women around the world regularly take the streets to struggle for their freedom. These are values that have derived from great resistance. In Kurdistan to be Kurdish was banned, to be Kurdish was made to be a source of shame. This for women meant no identity and a deeper exploitation of labour; persecution and violence had become fate.

The women of Kurdistan however, never accepted any of these as their destiny. To not accept this and to struggle, meant that they had to construct their own freedom. The Kurdish women’s search for freedom began with the Kurdistan Freedom Movement, or to be more precise, with the childhood dreams of Abdullah Ocalan. Even at a very early age Abdullah Ocalan’s disapproval of society’s extreme feudality was to show in his attempts to befriend girls of his age, and to include them in their games. At that very young age, even if it was not very consciously done, Abdullah Ocalan made resistance against society’s backward traditions a lifestyle in order to live freely with women and to live with free women.

Abdullah Ocalan’s desire to emancipate humanity through the emancipation of the woman was and is a fundamental motivator in his thoughts. The women of Kurdistan always played an active and leading role in the resistance. At first, the women of Kurdistan were organising themselves within the ranks of the Kurdistan Freedom Movement, the PKK. Although in the first years of the PKK there were not many women throughout the organisation, the women that had joined the PKK were women with insurmountable desires for women’s liberation. The role played by women in the PKK becoming a mass movement is extremely significant.

When the PKK began its guerrilla war on the 15^th of August 1984, Kurdish women were pouring into the ranks of the PKK. At first, women were joining to liberate the Kurdish people through popular resistance, but through time it was becoming clear that there was a need for an independent path of resistance for the women of Kurdistan. When we analyse the feudal characteristics of Kurdish society of the time, it is understandable why Kurdish women decided to organise independently in order to better fulfil their role in the liberation movement.

Women fighters in the ranks of the PKK established YJWK (the Union of the Patriotic Women of Kurdistan) in 1987. YJWK is the first revolutionary and liberationist movement of the women of Kurdistan. This organisation was not only aimed at Kurdish women, revolutionary women from all over the world joined the organisation. The joining of the guerrilla ranks was not seen as a simple participation in a war. Guerrilla life was seen as the overcoming of the lifestyle asserted by the system by creating the will to live independently of any other external power.

Alongside the struggle against natural conditions, major efforts against the enemy and the patriarchal system were all administered hand in hand. This laid the foundations for a woman’s army. While the women of Kurdistan were being left with no identity, under the PKK women were forming armies. On the issue of a woman’s army our leader Apo stated: “a woman’s army is not only a requirement for the war against the patriarchal system, but is also a requirement in opposition to sexist mind-sets within the freedom movement. Instead of traditional lifestyles and relationships, relationships based on freedom must be adopted; the synthetic dependence of women to men must be overcome by free choice.”

The women of the PKK later formed YAJK (the Women’s Kurdistan Liberation Union) in the mountains of Kurdistan. YAJK was the women’s pioneer of war, education and self-evaluation and took on the responsibility of the transformation of men. This is how our leader Apo defined YAJK: First, YAJK means the attainment of the highest possible sentiments for one’s county. This means that even if everyone gives up on their country, YAJK continues the struggle. Second, YAJK is a reality of war. Here there is a national liberationist war. YAJK is well aware that this war is the fundamental component of its existence. War is a basic principle for YAJK. However, this does not only mean military war; this war is internal as much as it is external. Third, YAJK is a partisan force. It is most devoted to the principles and ideals of the party (PKK). Without the struggle of the PKK it is clear that the women’s liberation movement could not have taken these major strides. Therefore, the devotion and internalisation of the PKK is a vital responsibility for YAJK.

The 90’s was a time in which the war and international pressure intensified; however, it was also a time for developments and mass participation to the Women’s Liberation Movement. While Kurdish women were taking major military strides, they were also leading the mass resistances. As a result of these developments the now experienced movement was beginning to push for new openings. The year of 1997 was a year of significant progress for the woman’s liberation movement. On the 8^th of March 1998, by announcing the Women’s Liberation Ideology our leader Apo integrated the struggle of the women of Kurdistan with the struggle of the women of the world. The announcement of this ideology in many ways represented a first among ideologies of societal emancipation. This ideology does not carry a simple ambition of the equality between the sexes. Rather, it aims to reorganise the whole of society by renovating the matriarchal order of life that existed in natural societies.

The Basic Principles of the Women’s Liberation Ideology

I. Patriotism: Our leader Apo says “Before everything women’s ideology cannot exist without land. The art of harvest and the art of production are connected to women’s artistry. This means that the first principle of the women’s ideology is a woman’s connection to the land it is born on; in other words, patriotism.”

II. The principle of free thought and free will: “the second principle is the woman’s ability to think freely and develop a free will in its participations to social life. If this ideology is to succeed, women must be able to live as they wish and make decisions accordingly. We must trust in their decisions and respect their will. This is an indispensible principle for this ideology.”

III. A sharing of life based on freedom and the principle of organisation: “For any of the above to materialise an organisational structure is vital. An unorganised individual is nothing. The first social structures are organised around women. Women must take their organisational structures seriously, as men have many organisations. Women must generalise their organisation – this is what today we are calling YAJK.

IV. The principle of resistance: “Women must see life as a domain for resistance. This is because without resistance women are being kept captive between four walls. Women are being loitered with simple tasks; therefore, to counter this, women must empower themselves by resisting in every possible way.

YAJK subsequently initiated educational seminars around these principles. The situation of the PKK militants in the mountains of Kurdistan enabled them to break off from the sovereign system and consequently enabled them to construct their own values and thought systems. For female militants this carried extra significance. The ability to carry out military actions, the ability to defend themselves and the ability to establish free thought brought about significant developments for female PKK militants. This led to the eventual establishment of PAJK (the Free Women’s Party of Kurdistan) which is today continuing this line of resistance.

Since the year 2000, our leader Apo’s new democratic, ecological and gender equal paradigm has been a complimentary addition to the history of the women’s struggle in Kurdistan. In Kurdistan the materialisation of this paradigm has been most evident in the women’s struggle. The fact that a fundamental aspect of the new paradigm is gender equality has integrated the women of Kurdistan with the women of the world.

The women of Kurdistan formed their democratic confederal umbrella organisation in 2005. This system is formed of four fundamental components:

1- The women’s ideological movement PAJK

2- The women’s social movement YJA (the Free Women’s Union)

3- The women’s self-defence force YJA-STAR

4- The young women’s organisation

The women of the Kurdistan freedom movement come together under the umbrella organisation called the KJB. These four main fields all organise and plan their work independently but come together in the formation of wider strategies. As we come to the end of an article in which we have tried to briefly introduce the Kurdistan women’s movement, it is probably appropriate to finish with the latest development: Jineology (the original version of this word is Kurdish and is derived from the Kurdish word for woman, jin. An exact definition would probably be womanology).

Jineology as a term was coined by our leader Apo 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. Jineology is formed on the criticism that existing scientific disciplines are structured within the framework of capitalist modernity and therefore are extremely divided and fragmented. Jineology, on the other hand, foresees a wholesome approach to humanity, society and the universe and this is why rather than being a new scientific discipline jineology is a new epistemological approach fuelled by a conscience of freedom.

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Edited February 21, 2015 by John Dolva

John Dolva · February 22, 2015

"We will fight ISIS with all the strength we have no matter where they are."---What happened in Turkey, Rojava and Syria this weekend? US media got it wrong.

We are being asked by readers about the Turkish army's operation to save the tomb of Suleyman Shah and evacuate Turkish soldiers stationed there. US media is again not accurately reporting on events in the region and is confusing people, perhaps deliberately so. Here are our notes on the situation.

First, it must be understood that this was a joint operation between Rojava's heroic YPG (People's Defense Units) and the Turkish army and is best referred to as "the Suleyman Shah operation." The Kobanê Democratic Autonomous Administration and the YPG gave their permission for the operation and knew about the army's moves ahead of time. The Turkish state clearly demanded something from the YPG and the administration of Kobanê, but forces tied to the US-led coalition also made a request to the YPG and the Kobanê administration.

Under these conditions, then, the YPG Command "saw no harm in approving the operation in which human dimension was in the forefront,” a YPG statement on the operation said. Planning and carrying out the Suleyman Shah operation with everyone involved took at least four days. The YPG statement therefore also said, "In this context, armored vehicles and a certain number of soldiers affiliated to the Turkish army crossed into Kobanê Canton through Mürşitpınar border crossing at 21.00 yesterday evening. Advancing in company with vehicles of YPG forces, the Turkish military reached the Suleyman Shah tomb following a route which had been previously determined. Our forces have precisely fulfilled their duty after undertaking responsibility for the deployment and reinforcement of Turkish soldiers in the areas controlled by our forces." The operation ws a success precisely because of the YPG and the Kobanê administration.

The operation itself was intended to break the ISIS blockade of the area, free the Turkish soldiers there and relocate the tomb of Suleyman Shah. ISIS has been destroying tombs, mosques, churches and holy sites of the peoples in the region in order to wipe out their identities and take control of the region. They practice forms of human and cultural genocide. Destroying the tomb of Suleyman Shah would certainly affect the political balance within Turkey in negative ways and would complicate matters in the region, perhaps widening the conflict. The ISIS blockade was broken, forces were evacuated and the remains of Suleyman Shah and other valuable artifacts were taken to Turkey while the tomb itself was moved from the village of Karakozak on the banks of the Euphrates to a hill in the village of Ashme which is under the control of YPG/YPJ forces. Turkish and YPG flags and a poster of imprison Kurdish liberation movement leader Abdullah Öcalan are now waving in the village of Ashme. The village is to the west of Kobanê city, which was liberated from ISIS gangs just 10 days ago by YPG/YPJ forces. The new site for the tomb is only 100 metres from the border.

We were troubled by the presence of the Turkish flag and forces which have remained in the village to work on the new site. Ten Turkish tanks and heavy equipment are there, but the site is surrounded by with wire fences. Rojava's People's/Women's Defense Forces (YPG/YPJ) are headquartered nearby. The YPG/YPJ is also positioned nearby Martyr Hogir Hill overlooking the entire area.

Much might be made of this cooperation, or perhaps nothing will come out of it. US media keeps referring to the area as Syrian and is not mentioning the YPG. Their focus is on the possibility of increasing tensions between the Syrian and Turkish regimes and not on the more positive story of what has been accomplished here.

We are in no hurry to rush to judgment on the operation, and especially so since military activity and mortar attacks by the Turkish army targeting Medya Defense Zones is continuing while everything else is going on this. This is the large region liberated by the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) and serves as a headquarters for the guerrilla forces and certain political movements forced underground by the Turkish state. At the same time that Turkish forces are attacking the Medya Defense Zones other attacks are also coming from the Iranian regime. The attacks from Iran come at a moment when that regime is increasing its repression of Kurdish liberation forces and others in Eastern Kurdistan (Rojhelat, or so-called "Iranian Kurdistan") and Iran itself. The People's Defense Forces Press and Communication Center (HPG-BIM) is tracking much of this and trying to draw international attention to the conflicts.

The HPG-BIM has said that the Turkish military hit the Ronahî Hill and Mêrgê areas with howitzers late this weeek. This is the area on the border a near to the Mamreş Hill and Girana military post which is under the control of the Turkish army in the Şemdinli district of Hakkari. We have previously given much attention to the people's struggles in the Şemdinli district against the militarization of their region.

The HPG-BIM statement said that unmanned aerial vehicles of the Turkish army have also carried out reconnaissance flights over the Adılbeg area in Şemdinli and that there has also been Turkish military activity around the Haftanin region in the Medya Defense Zones this weekend. The Zap region has also seen similar military activity.

Suleyman Shah was the grandfather of the first Ottoman ruler, Osman I. He died in 1236. The 1921 Treaty of Ankara signed between France and Turkey gave the original site of the tomb to Turkey and so created a small Turkish enclave there. In 1974 the original site was flooded and the tomb and enclave were relocated. The Turkish state has maintained a token presence there but the tomb has a certain importance. Given that ISIS previously kidnapped Turkish citizens in Iraq and seized Turkish property there and the importance of the tomb, something had to be done as ISIS forces advanced. On the other hand, Turkish government officials had recently assured people that ISIS posed no threat to the tomb.

Speaking more broadly about the situation in the region, Mutlu Civiroglu has interviewed YPG Commander Mahmud Berxwedan and portions of that interview are as follows. Mutlu Civiroglu is one of the knowledgeable people on the region and is a gifted think and intellectual We highly recommend his blog. We have not edited his interview.

* After liberating the city of Kobane, you began operations to liberate villages. What is the situation on the eastern, western and southern fronts? How far have you reached?

Mahmud Berxwedan: After liberating Kobane, we started a second advance. Since that day, approximately 20 days have passed. Within this time period, we carried out our operations successfully. Day by day, we are moving forward on all three fronts. We are liberating the land around Kobane bit by bit. On the western front, we have reached the point where we made close contact with ISIS on September 15th, we are somewhere near Shexler, there are 3-4 kilometers between us and the Euphrates. Around here, there are a small number of villages that are not yet under our control. Our operations are still ongoing around the villages of Kechelo, Jabalfaraj, Sevalo and Derbazin, and we will recapture these villages one by one.

* Alright, on the western front, will you go beyond the Euphrates and go toward Jarablus?

Mahmud Berxwedan: Our top priority is to liberate the whole area around Kobane. Then we will start a new war with ISIS. Up until now ISIS conquered our land and we succeeded thanks to our friends who act with fighting spirit and made them suffer a great defeat. After taking the whole of Kobane under our control, I can say that we'll start a war with ISIS, on September 15th they started the war, this time we will do it. Our struggle with ISIS will continue no matter where they go. We cut across all boundaries when it comes to fighting with them, we will liberate anyone who is targeted by ISIS.

* You sound very confident and you seem to be in good spirits. What makes you speak so assertively?

Mahmud Berxwedan: We have faith in ourselves, in our strength and the YPG-YPJ fighters. We believe in our Kalashnikovs and our bombs. Anything else are supportive tools. We will crush ISIS in anywhere in Syria. We will fight with them first in the area around Kobane, then wherever ISIS goes.

* Then, shall we say you will soon enter Jarablus, Manbij, Sarin and Tal Abyad? Is that right?

Mahmud Berxwedan: Wherever ISIS exists is our target. We don't want to be misunderstood, we are not targeting the Arab people, we are targeting ISIS. We don't have our eyes on anyone's property. We just want to fight ISIS. Wherever they are, we will settle scores, old and new.

* It has been reported that Arabs in places where ISIS holds control await your support, are these claims true?

Mahmud Berxwedan: Yes, they are. There are people who have escaped ISIS's tyranny from Manbij and Jarablus, and they have come and asked for our help. They want us to save their land from ISIS, we promised to help them. We'll help anyone who is subjected to ISIS's tyranny and save them from it.

* How about the situation on the southern and eastern fronts?

Mahmud Berxwedan: On the southern front, Shahid Xabur Hill has strategic importance because it overlooks the Qaraqozak Bridge and the area around Sarin. Girê Sêvê Hill, where there are intensive clashes, is now under our control, the YPG flag is flying on top of it.

* Is it true that part of the Aleppo-Hasakah highway is under your control now?

Mahmud Berxwedan: Yes, a 25 kilometer-long section of Aleppo-Haseke highway just southeast of Kobane is under the control of our fighters. Qilheydê, Girêk and many other villages on the Rotko Highway were liberated by the YPG. On the eastern front, Bexdik, Idani and many other villages close to these places are under our control.

* You are saying that you will support the Arab people who ask for your help and fight ISIS wherever they are in the world. Do the world powers also support you?

Mahmud Berxwedan: The ISIS thugs have become a nuisance for the world. Anyone who fights against them should support us, and increase the already extant support. Up until now, we have been fighting with limited means, always fighting with the weapons that we always mention. True that the Coalition Forces support us with airstrikes; however we still weren't given heavy weaponry such as tanks or new weapons. Everyone should take responsibility for this; we can be rid of ISIS only when we are united. We are fighting ISIS not only for Kobane but also for the whole of humanity. People should look out for Kobane not only about arms aid, but in terms of other things as well. Today a new Kobane is being built; everyone should act with a sense of responsibility. There was nothing left in the villages, the ISIS thugs had plundered everything. They had put landmines, bombs inside the houses to kill the civilians. That's why de-mining organizations should come to Kobane as soon as possible.

* It has been said that the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which was on your side in Kobane, will lead the operations that you will conduct in places which are densely populated by Arabs. What do you have to say about the role played both the FSA groups and the peshmerga forces from Iraqi Kurdistan in Kobane?

Mahmud Berxwedan: The groups such as Siwar al-Raqqa, Shams al-Shimal, Jabhat al-Akrad fought with us in Kobane and still now are continuing the struggle on the front line. In Arab areas, they lead, and we assist them. But they also need other kinds of help and haven't received any of sort of help yet. We try to help them with the limited means we have. The peshmerga forces were the back support from the beginning, they are not on the frontline. They have heavy weaponry and can give any form of support depending on our needs. They never hesitated doing anything they could do.

* Lastly, what percentage of the Kobane villages have been recovered? Also, the possibility of you entering Tal Abyad caused a stir among the people, what do you want to say about this?

Mahmud Berxwedan: 80% of the Kobane villages have been recovered. Our operations are still ongoing for the remaining 20%. We are planning to liberate Tal Abyad from ISIS. As I said in the beginning, we will fight ISIS with all the strength we have no matter where they are.

*Published originally on the Personal Website of Mutlu Civiroglu.

Posted by Urun Harvest at 2:00 PM

John Dolva · February 22, 2015

From self-dependence to dependency — and back?

But is Kobani really free? While ISIS has been driven out of the town, the jihadist forces still sit uneasily on its borders. Furthermore, the city lies in ruins. The total destruction that one sees across the city is everywhere south-east of the border gate. This was ISIS’s base throughout the conflict, and as a result, a target of the US-led coalition’s bombs. Instead of targeting the supply routes that ISIS used continuously throughout the siege, they choose to target ISIS purely within the city’s confines, condemning Kobani to dust and rubble. So why did the coalition decide to bomb the city rather than the supply routes of ISIS?

Mustafa believes this decision on the part of the US military was “a form of punishment for our system.” Rojava, with its grassroots-democratic model, had painstakingly resisted international capitalist interests through its system of democratic confederalism. This system, which focuses on autonomous self-dependence, has never fit easily with Western interests. As a result, many here believe the policy to bomb Kobani into oblivion has firmly forced its administration from one of self-dependence to dependency.

While the international community supported the Kurdish forces in their battle against ISIS, as of yet there has been no support to help the Kurds rebuild their city. Given the sheer extent of the destruction, it is also clear that the Kurds cannot rebuild the city alone. Since the international community bombed Kobani to the ground, it also has a duty to help it rebuild. When Rojava and its grassroots model of democratic autonomy were created, an actual city existed. The embargo that made life difficult for the Rojava administration could be negotiated around. But now that Kobani lies in total ruins, the people of Kobani need help.

If no such help is delivered, the city will forever resemble a ghost city, trapped between freedom and imprisonment. Aid is therefore essential, which requires a concerted international effort to force Turkey to open a humanitarian corridor. Enwer Muslim, the Prime Minister of the Kobani canton, has said that “the resistance of Kobani was a victory for humanity and will stand as an example in history. In the face of ISIS’s barbarism, Kobani stood up for humanity. Now is the time for humanity and the international community to stand up for Kobani.”

With this plea for support, careful attention must be paid to ensure the rebuilding of the town will be done in the same spirit of self-dependence that was used to liberate the city.

Yvo Fitzherbert is a freelance journalist based in Istanbul. He writes for a number of different publications, with a particular focus on Kurdish politics. Follow him on Twitter at @yvofitz.

Freedom Square in the eastern part of the city. Photo by author.

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International legal conference condemns PKK ban

The following comes from the Delist The PKK campaign. Readers who are in the US and who would like to take part are encouraged to contact us. The PKK is Kurdistan Worker's Party, Abdullah Ocalan is the imprisoned leader of the Kurdish freedom movement and the YPG/YPJ are Rojava's People's/Women's Defense Forces. We urge your support for this effort.

An international conference which took place in Bonn, Germany last week has published a resolution advocating the end of the ban on the PKK, as well all its sister organisations and their activities. The conference, which brought together lawyers and legal experts from across Europe, also called for the release of Abdullah Ocalan from Imrali in order for him to be able to fulfil his role as lead negotiator for the PKK in the ongoing peace talks; immunity and protection from criminalisation for negotiators on all sides, and the abolishment of all terrorism lists in the EU, its members states and in Turkey.

Many of the participants of the conference, which was organised by MAF-DAD and Azadi Freiheit, have also been a part of a joint ELDH appeal which has been collecting signatures from lawyers, barristers and legal professionals who support the abolishing the ban. This campaign is still open, and lawyers from across Europe are encouraged to sign on.

In addition, the conference strongly asserts that the Kurdish people have a right to self-determination, and have taken this right in the establishment of an autonomous region in Syria – Rojava. It also calls on the EU to support the reconstruction of Kobane following a 6-month siege on the city by the so-called "Islamic State."

You can read the conference resolution in full below:

“THE SO-CALLED ANTI-TERROR STRUGGLE USING THE EXAMPLE OF THE KURDS IN THE LIGHT OF INTERNATIONAL LAW”

Bonn 6-8 February 2015

Final Resolution

Following consideration by the participants of:

- the right to self-determination of the Kurdish people;

- the concept of ‘terrorism;’

- the legal and political solutions,

The following conclusions have been reached:

The Kurdish people in the states of the near east (Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran) have the right to self-determination. After the establishment of the autonomous region of Kurdistan in Northern Iraq, the people of Rojava (Northern Syria) have successfully claimed this right with the implementation of a model of democratic autonomy in the three cantons. Deserving of special attention under these conditions is a new social contract in Rojava that establishes a framework for the peaceful coexistence of all ethnic, cultural, religious and secular identities.

The participants vehemently condemn the atrocities of the "Islamic State" (Da’esh) committed against Kurds, Yezides, Turkmenians, Assyrians, Shiites, and other minorities in the region. The mass enslavement, rape, and murder of women are particularly abhorrent. The fate of countless Yezidi women remains unknown to date. The fight of the armed units of YPG/YGJ and PKK against attacks of the “Islamic State (IS)” and other groups is based on the right to self-defence.

All direct and indirect parties in this civil war are requested to respect international humanitarian law and to ensure its application. Those who are responsible for femicide and crimes against humanity are to be prosecuted and sentenced under international humanitarian law.

All necessary steps must be taken for the permanent protection of all peoples living in the region. All direct support of ‘IS’ (Da’esh) including logistical support, and military aid,, including the complicity of the Governments of Turkey, Saudi-Arabia and Qatar, must end.

The European Union and the United Nations must urgently provide support for the rebuilding of Kobani, Sringal, and other regions destroyed by "IS" (Da’esh). To this end, unhindered boarder traffic through the neighboring countries must be guaranteed.

An international delegation of jurists will visit Rojava in order to support the development of the Rule of Law in the region and to support the professional development of the judiciary.

The participants further conclude, that in the light of the cease fire and the ongoing peace process between the PKK and the Turkish government, the continuing proscription of the PKK is no longer appropriate and that the following steps must now be taken:

Continuing constructive engagement in the peace process between the Turkish government and the PKK with the goal of a lasting peace and the legal recognition by the Turkish state of the PKK and its sister organisations;
The active support of the peace process, especially by the EU and other countries who criminalise the PKK;
The assurance of safety and immunity for the negotiators of the peace process on both sides
The release of Abdullah Ocalan so that he may fulfil his role as leading negotiator for PKK
Opposition to the new security bill which constrains the right to demonstrate,, provides for more draconian punishments, and the extension of the rights of the executive, which has been submitted to the Turkish Parliament in the name of the “War on Terror”
An end to the ban on the PKK, its sister organisations and media outlets, and their activities, in all countries and especially in the EU;
The removal of the PKK and its sister organisations from the proscribed organisation list of every country and the EU;
The general abolishment of such lists in every country and the EU

All lawyers are encouraged to sign the joint declaration of the EU lawyers association EJDM/ELDH e.V., of MAF-DAD e.V. and AZADI e.V. and to support its distribution.

“Remove PKK from the EU Proscribed Organisation List – lift the activity ban – support the peace process – legal reassessment necessary”

See the website of EJDM/ELDH or contact by email at info@mafdad.org or azadi@t-online.de

Posted by Urun Harvest at 11:52 AM No comments:

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John Dolva · February 23, 2015

Home \ About Us

About Us

KJB (Komalên Jinên Kurdistan)

The Kurdistan Women’s Liberation Movement for a Universal Women’s Struggle

Today, all the answers to the problems of humanity are embedded in freedom and democracy. The most secretive and basic problem of freedom and democracy of human history is related to the organization of relations between genders. In other words, the question of women’s liberation is the most basic question of liberation and democracy in today’s world. Generally speaking, the liberation of women is the key to the solution of many problems – from the problems of war and peace to realization of a new life in freedom and democracy.

Kurdish women, who believe that democracy, justice and equality should first of all be internally created, have established their first and comprehensive organization on this basis. The principle of the Kurdish popular leader Abdullah Öcalan as to the fact that the `liberation of women is the liberation of the Kurdish society` brought the participation of women throughout the 30 years history of struggle of the Kurdistan Workers Party PKK. On the one hand, thousands of women, who came to the mountains in waves, participated in the armed struggle for the purpose of protecting the identity and freedom of the Kurdish people against the multi-dimensional assaults of the Turkish army and its support of NATO. On the other hand, Kurdish women have been fighting for the liberation of women as a gender by creating their own organization with a consciousness and perspective to oppose five thousand years of patriarchal domination and sexism. This struggle is based on the perspective of the Kurdish popular leader Abdullah Öcalan’s theory of revolution, stating that the liberation of society is based on the liberation of women, which should be realized during the process of revolution. Establishing the historical and philosophical basis of their struggle for liberation on this basis, Kurdish women have been engaged in a dual struggle as a gender as well as struggling for the liberation of Kurdish people since the foundation of the PKK.

Short History of the Kurdistan Women’s Liberation Movement

Abdullah Öcalan, who has played a leading role for the establishment and the revolutionary direction of the Kurdish liberation movement, started his first analysis by saying “no revolution can take place while women are slaves”. He subsequently developed his critique analysis and perspectives on the means of struggle on issues of women, family and gender liberation.

As a result of the socialization of PKK’s ideas in relation to liberation, popular rebellions started in the Kurdish town Nusaybin for the first time under the leadership of women. The impact of Abdullah Öcalan’s analysis with regard to women’s liberation, the role of family and society on Kurdish women, led to the fact that more and more women joined the armed struggle of the PKK.

The social pressure and sexism of feudal-tribal structure, as well as the Turkish state’s national and class oppression against the Kurdish people in the 1990ies increased the intensity of women’s participation. Main factors that contributed to women’s participation to the liberation struggle were anger and resistance of Kurdish women against cruel torture, arrests, and the prohibition of anything in relation to Kurds and Kurdistan as well as their search for freedom – as women and as a nation. While the participation of women in guerrilla forces was increasing rapidly, there was also an increasing engagement of Kurdish women in political activities and actions in almost every area of Kurdistan and Europe where Kurds live in exile. The first Kurdish women’s organization was founded in Hannover, Germany in 1987 under the name of YJWK (Yêkitîya Jinên Welatparêzên Kurdistanê – Union of Patriotic Women from Kurdistan). Due to the attacks, the denial and bans of the Turkish state this first Kurdish women’s organization was primarily founded and announced in Exile, not in Kurdistan. Hereby Kurdish women specifically aimed at developing their self-organization and struggle for women’s liberation.

The establishment of the Free Women’s Army

Women’s participation in guerrilla has qualitatively and quantitatively increased in the 1990s. As thousands of women joined this struggle, a new type of organization amongst women within the guerrilla in Kurdistan was required. This development was followed by the first establishment of women’s guerrilla units in 1993 toward the establishment of a women’s army. During the stage of establishment, women’s traditional characteristics, the impact of feudal society created difficulties in women’s organization due to lack of self-confidence.

However, the faith in freedom, their own strength and self-organization that Kurdish women gained by their practical experiences in the freedom struggle contributed to a quick progress of their ideological, military, political and social organization. Women gained their self-confidence thanks to their successful march into many areas of struggle which traditionally were regarded as “belonging to men”. Hereby women have changed the mentality and structures of male domination and thus the mentality of the Kurdish society, life, social organization, liberation and democracy as part of the qualitative change in revolution. This also led to a serious change in the traditional, ruling perception and mentality of men towards women.

The political and social activities carried out by guerrilla women as part of the formation of women’s army, led women to organize in villages and cities. As a result of this, it has been decided to establish a more comprehensive women’s organization that includes women in the army as well a political and social organization. According to this the organization of unity has been initiated at the 1^st Kurdistan Women’s Liberation Congress by the foundation of the Kurdistan Free Women’s Union YAJK (Yekitiya Azadiya Jinen Kurdistan) in 1995. The organization of YAJK has been realized upon the experienced gained during the formation of women’s army. This has been an important process for women to develop their own social and political perspective instead of copying male-like characteristics or assuming themselves as a back-up force.It was then intended to incorporate the experiences of Kurdish women gained through YAJK with the women’s movements struggling at international level. This led to the participation of YAJK in UN Women’s Conference in Beijing in 1995.

Ideology of Women’s Liberation

In order to build on the consciousness and experience women gained in the freedom struggle, Abdullah Öcalan introduced his theory that involved a break-off with the system of patriarchal domination and characteristics of enslaved women. The theory of breaking-off is the expression of women’s mental, spiritual and cultural break-off with the ruling system. The theory helped Kurdish women to develop a deeper understanding and definition of the dominant system as well as to gain the consciousness, courage and stance to fight against it. By taking part in any domain where they were originally kept away from, women became more competent to organize and manage themselves. Parallel to the theory of breaking-off, women have carried out various activities for the liberation and self-reflection of men under the project of men’s transformation.

Basic principles of social revolution have been developed with the Ideology of Women’s Liberation on 8 March 1998. The basic principles of the Ideology of Women’s Liberation are patriotism; living on the basis of free thoughts and a free will; self-organization; the determination to struggle and aesthetics. The first party of women, called Kurdistan Working Women’s Party (PJKK), was established on 8 March 1999 in order to render the ideology of women’s struggle more practical. The foundation of this first women’s party was an important step in terms of gaining a new perception for challenging the patriarchal system of civilization, and all of its variations and methods.

The organization of the women’s party extended the forms and content of her fight in the course of the advancement of the liberation struggle constantly, interacting with the level of consciousness and enlightenment in society. Thus the PJKK widened the perspective of her organization and her struggle. Against this background she changed her name on the third congress of the women’s liberation movement in 2000.

As a result, the Women’s Liberation Party (PJA) was established with the decision to take universal responsibility and to incorporate the experiences of Kurdish women with that of women from other nations. In 2002 the PJA prepared a draft for a Women’s Social Contract and introduced it to other women and women organizations during different activities and conferences in order to strengthen the cooperation and dialogues with the women from all over the world. The PJA also joined the discussions on a World Women’s Constitution with the Draft Social Contract. Further the PJA has established relationships with different women’s organizations that carried out activities in terms of human rights, peace and democracy as well as revolutionary women’s organizations.

Further the women’s party expanded its organization with the establishment of the Kurdistan Women’s Liberation Party PAJK (Partiya Azadiya Jin a Kurdistan) in 2004. Then it became an umbrella organization bringing women in different areas of struggle under the Kurdish Liberation Movement together. However, in Kurdistan where a women’s renaissance took place, the need for a more flexible and comprehensive, confederative women’s organization was put forward. Towards the further development of a women’s confederation, the High Women’s Council KJB (Koma Jinên Bilind) was established in 2005 as a confederate umbrella organization with the participation of women and women organizations from four parts of Kurdistan and Kurdish women living abroad.

Kurdish women, who got to know themselves and their strength through the liberation struggle, playing the role of vanguard power of society, have ensured a significant progress in the social revolution in Kurdistan. With the establishment of the KJB, Kurdish women’s struggle gained even more courageous and active characteristics through its ideological, theoretical, and strategic achievements.

With her resistance against Turkish army and police during the Kurdish uprisings in 1991 Berivan (Binevş Egal) gave a new direction for thousands of women’s search for liberation. With their lives, their personality and their struggle thousands of women such as Beritan (Gülnaz Karataş), Zilan (Zeynep Kınacı), Şilan (Meysa Baki), Viyan (Leyla Muhammed), Ronahi (Şirin Elamohoyi) have created a glorious tradition of resistance for Kurdistan Women’s Movement as well as for the global women’s liberation struggle. In the process of a social, cultural and mental revolution realised throughout the history of Kurdistan Women’s Liberation Movement with the experiences of YJWK, YAJK, PJKK, PJA, PAJK and lastly with the foundation of the KJB has succeeded in turning the history of the women into the opposite and became the guarantee for social transformation towards a free society. It has been largely possible to reach the phenomena of a free individual and a free society through the democratisation of the Kurdish society. This has played a very important role in taking serious and real steps in the struggle for building up a free and political society.

The High Women’s Council – KJB (Koma Jinên Bilind)

The KJB (Koma Jinên Bilind) has been established on 20 April 2005. Its name is rooted in the Kurdish term “Kom” which indicates the communal social organization in the Neolithic age. It expresses the reactivation of women-centred social life in the Neolithic age. It has inherited the historical, social values of Neolithic societies in Mesopotamia as well as the freedom struggles carried out by women and the peoples. Regarding the confederate organization as a requirement, the KJB wants to share the processes of its transformation in relation to patriarchal-statist contradictions as well as the resolution and expression of the contradictions within the chaos of capitalist system with everybody who is searching for freedom.

While the KJB analyses the need for a confederate model of organization and society, it pursues the aim to disclose the basic contradictions of the 5,000-year-old patriarchal state-system and all related contradictions which express themselves in the chaos of the capitalistic system. Hereby the KJB strives for including all people who are searching for freedom, in the elaboration and conversion of attempts for solution. The awareness which has arisen from the struggles for women’s and peoples’ liberation in the past and their recent requirements are constituents of the KJB’s perspective of struggle.

The purpose of KJB is to extend the confederative women’s organization and to play a leading role in building up a democratic confederation in order to establish a democratic, ecological society based on gender liberty. The fundament for this fight is the development of a free identity of women in all areas of life on the basis of the women’s liberation ideology. In this sense, the KJB fights against sexist mentality and structures with the aim to eliminate the patriarchal system with state and society. In order to achieve a women-centred social democratization, the KJB develops its struggle and activities in the fields of ideology, society, politics and legitimate self-defence. In this context, the KJB coordinates the share of tasks among women in the different areas of the struggle and its member organizations.

KJB is a Democratic Confederate Women’s Organization

There are extensive historical and contemporary resources of democratic social confederations in the Middle East and Kurdistan, where different cultures and faiths are located. The former relationships of people in this area were characterized as relationships between natural federations and confederations. For this reason, social problems have never been as intense as they became in the 20^th century when the social structures were destroyed by the colonial imposition of the national state model. Nationalism and the central administration of the national state problems deteriorated the problems, from which people have suffered heavily. Women’s social exclusion was never as difficult as it has become under the conditions of the capitalist modernity. Therefore, the establishment of the democratic confederalizm is the most effective solution for the Middle East.

KJB argues that the level of freedom of society is connected to the level of women’s freedom. A sustainable democratization can only be ensured and guaranteed by women’s liberation. The patriarchal ideologies of domination that degrade women as objects and institutionalize the sexist mentality are the weakest points of the ruling systems. We cannot talk about real democracy, the establishment of a socialist and free life unless we fight against patriarchal ideologies and their comprehension of culture and moral. This is why it is important to place the gender liberation based approach in the centre of a revolutionary approach for social transformation. The area of Mesopotamia, where once natural and communal organization of life developed, has the potential for realizing a women’s renaissance lead by women.

A democracy that does not have an ecological awareness and does not target the elimination of exploitation of the nature by humans will remain weak and cannot meet the needs of society. The hierarchical and human-centred mentality that originates in the 5000 years of class-ruled civilizations and lead to a separation of human from the nature is the reason for the decline of humanity. Therefore, human do not assume themselves as an equal and free part of nature anymore. By re-adopting the idea of live and productive nature an ecological revolution needs to take place. This has to overcome the hierarchical perceptions which start with the exploitation of human by human and carry on with the exploitation of the nature.

In opposition to other systems, the system of the KJB aims at establishing a radical and profound democracy based on an ecological and gender-liberating revolution.

The Program of the KJB

KJB gives priority to the struggle for social transformation while ascribing strategic value to the establishment of a democratic system of women’s and peoples’ self-governance. The basic principles of its program are to support the liberation of society, to expand the scope of democratic live and politics, and to compel the state to respect the self-governance of the people. Revealing the will of society and supporting societies in becoming a self-reliant actors by organizing themselves, are the most basic principles of the KJB’s political mission. A top-down approach to rule over a patriarchal, state-owned society which has been detracted from the monopole of the former state would contradict with both, namely our definition of democracy as well as our understanding of social transformation.

A Contract, Not a Constitution

The KJB uses a contract to manage the function between the organizations under its umbrella which have a wide range of spectrum extending from the social society organizations to units in the area of legitimate self-defence. However, every constituent, each organization has a constitutional function in itself. For example, the organizations in the ideological area are very different from the organizations in the social and political areas. All organizations fulfil their duties under the umbrella of the KJB while protecting their special identities. In matters which concern the whole women’s movement common will and consensus decisions are essential. The KJB contract defines the inter-organizational rules and the basic principles of organization’s function. Every constituent, each organization is represented at the KJB’s Executive Council by elected representatives. At the same time it has the right to express its will and participated in decision-making in relation to any issue concerning Women’s Liberation Movement. The KJB contract also aims at developing direct democracy within the organization as well as in the grassroots structures in society.

Alliances

The universal experiences of women’s organization in the whole world and the Middle East, developed on the purpose of social liberation, have been the main sources of inspiration for Kurdish women. It has been extremely important to use these experiences in accordance with the reality of the Kurds. To be a free woman, is the expression of women who are aware of their own universality and can implement the principles of democracy, freedom and equality in social contexts and their relationships.

The KJB describes itself as a part of the world women’s movement. On this basis it strives for developing a democratic unity of power. According to this, it is essential to the KJB to bring women – individuals and organizations – together in the context of the women’s liberation ideology aiming at building a woman-centred system and building a common struggle for a democratic, ecological and gender-liberating revolution. The KJB aims at developing mutual solidarity, and material and spiritual cooperation. In order to overcome all problems which are experienced by women, the KJB aims at strengthening mutual solidarity, ideal and material exchange among women.
The KJB aims at alliances and the unity of women in action and the formation of strategic common transnational organizations. It supports women’s projects in democratic, ecologist and socialist organizations, human rights organizations and NGOs. Further it contributes to the development of common projects.
The KJB carries out activities to develop women’s platforms at regional and international levels.
The KJB cooperates with global, feminist movements and strives to develop a unity of democratic women’s forces.

Organizational Model of the KJB

Their organizational model consists of ideological organization, social and political mass organizations and organizations in the area of legitimate defence based on the strategy of democratic transformation. This involves the Kurdistan Women’s Liberation Party PAJK (Partîya Azadîya Jin a Kurdistan) in the ideological field, the Unions of Free Women YJA (Yekitiyên Jinên Azad) within the field of social and political organizing and the Free Women’s Units ‘Star’ YJA Star (Yeknîyên Jinên Azad Star) in the field of legitimate defence and the committee of young women in the field of young women’s organizing.

As women’s organization within the guerrilla forces the YJA Star adopts and supports the ideological and organizational perspective of the struggle, which is developed by the KJB and organizes itself in accordance with the heritage of the Kurdistan Women’s Liberation Movement. However, within the confederate organization of the KJB, the YJA Star remains self-contained and autonomous especially in terms of its independent military structure within the People’s Defence Forces. The relationships between the YJA Star and the KJB are ensured through representatives of the KJB in the Peoples’ Defence Committee.

Organizational Structure and Function

- Women’s Freedom Assembly

As an umbrella organization the KJB consists of individuals and organizations committing themselves to the implementation of the decisions and projects decided at the Women’s Freedom Assembly. The Women’s Freedom Assembly is the highest decision making organ of the KJB. The assembly takes place once a year. The KJB assembly convenes with the participation of at least two thirds of the delegates determined in accordance with the proportion of representation of every participating organization.

- Executive Council

Between two Women’s Freedom Assemblies the Executive Council is the organ that coordinates and implements the ideological – political decisions determined during the assembly. The KJB executive council consists of elected representatives of the member organizations. The executive council consists of 23 representatives among whom seven members are elected as the coordination of the KJB.

The KJB Executive Council publishes perspectives and general directives with regard to the politics of the women’s movement, while it collects the views and propositions of member organizations beforehand.

- Constituents of the KJB

The organization and the functioning of the KJB are based on the principles of democratic participation, openness and transparency. In all fields the KJB strives for the implementation of direct democracy; in all areas of work where conditions for the implementation of direct democracy do not exist, representative democracy is implemented through elected representatives. The executive councils of all organizations and constituents of the KJB are appointed by and can be withdrawn from their duties by elections. In the execution of decisions specificities and special needs of minorities are taken into consideration.
Any member of the KJB can hand in claims and propositions to the Women’s Freedom Assembly in relation to the member-organizations and their representatives.
The constituents of the KJB work simultaneous with equal rights. They complete each other and are responsible for each other’s development. All member organizations realize their congresses and conferences before the Women’s Freedom Assembly as far as possible due to conditions and determine the representatives, who will represent them in the KJB Executive Council. If the conditions do not allow this procedure, the constituents determine their representatives by consulting the members of their organizations.

PAJK (Partiya Azadiya Jin a Kurdistan) – Kurdistan Women’s Liberation Party

As an ideological party, PAJK is the initiating and path-breaking organization of the KJB. It is responsible for the realization of the ideology of women’s liberation in every organizational area as well as for the training of women cadres. For this reason, PAJK members contribute to the activities of all KJB constituents as path-breaking cadres. PAJK carries out systematic training activities in order to focus on ideological, philosophical, theoretical, academic, cultural and artistic development of women. It deepens free debates and attitudes among women and supports the development of free personalities. Therefore, PAJK improves and implements the function of educating women cadres and preparing them for their engagement in all working-fields of the KJB. With its activities, tasks and mission, PAJK is the leading ideological power of the Women’s Liberation Movement.

The task of PAJK is to spread the ideology of women’s liberation and to educate women cadres on these basic principles. In order to ideologically support all educational activities within the KJB, it carries out activities that include research, literature works and ideological studies endeavouring to reach independent academic standards. Spreading the ideology of women’s liberation within the society, PAJK strives for the establishment of a free, democratic society through the liberation from sexism.
With the objective to overcome sexism and patriarchal dominance PAJK promotes the autonomous organization of women in the areas of press-media, culture, art, literature, economy, diplomacy and politics in order to develop the democratic content and women’s free identity in these fields.
PAJK encourages the establishment of various women’s academies to develop an alternative social education system in Kurdistan in cooperation with other constituent organisations of the KJB. Through the establishment of peoples’ and women’s academies PAJK aims at eliminating the elite and anti-social characteristics of science that are imposed by a male dominant view of the hegemonic education system. A main purpose of PAJK is to develop a science of women (in Kurdish: “Jinelogy”), to realize free, democratic women’s perspective instead of the alienated mentalities created by the patriarchal historiography and unsocial approaches of sciences. By establishing “Jinelogy”, PAJK aims at (re-)establishing an interdisciplinary approach which includes a combination of all social sciences and an interplay between individuals, societies, nature and the universe in order to enlighten the societies in such a way as to take over mutual responsibility for the development of a free and ecological life.

YJA (Yekitiyên Jinên Azad) – Unions of Free Women

The YJA are the revolutionary democratic women’s organizations and unions for action that fight against the hierarchical state-owned mentality and the liberation from its impact. Striving for mental transformation based on the ideology of women’s liberation, the mission of the YJA is the democratization of society by the autonomous organization of women.

The YJA are local and universal organizations of struggle unifying strength, hearts and actions of women from Kurdistan and the Middle East for the realization of their common goals. YJA carries the responsibility to develop and implement policies for the establishment of a democratic, political society and national unity in Kurdistan by taking the democratic-confederate organization of women as its fundament.

YJA is based on a flexible and horizontal organizational model based on mutual responsibility and labour, instead of the state-centred, hierarchical, self-centred, vertical hegemonic organizational models. Starting from the smallest settlements (village, neighbourhood, district, provinces…) YJA maintains the self-organization and conscious of women through the formation of assemblies, councils and communes, etc. YJA works with the principles of coordinating the work, tasks and roles, cooperation and solidarity from the smallest local organizations to largest organs of the assemblies. The purpose of the YJA is to establish an organization that responds to all the daily-life and general political demands of women. YJA advocates for the development of the consciousness of the free citizen that promotes the democratic, progressive equal-free will of the society and the individuals instead of the ruling system’s comprehension of state citizenship.
YJA plays a leading role in the democratization of the society, which so far has been determined by governments and the capital. Thereby, YJA describes politics as an art to solve the problems of women and the society by expanding the democratic, political and social struggle of women at the grassroots. YJA works for the development of an economy, economic structures and cooperation that are based on the value of use, the people’s needs and fair dissemination by eliminating the profit making economic production of merchandise. Thus, YJA tries to develop social solidarity and collective consciousness in order to strengthen the communal-democratic grassroots structures. It develops and coordinates communes and cooperatives that respond to the needs of women and the society. In terms of the matters of peoples’ health, YJA strives to implement projects and to establish institutions that respond to health problems of women and the society.
YJA also struggles against the killings of women and feminicide due to the classical, patriarchal concepts of “honour”, which is a sanctioned taboo and still threatens the lives of women in the Middle East and Kurdistan. At the same time YJA tries to enlighten the society by the means of projects and campaigns and develops radical methods of struggle to counteract against the different forms of the physical and structural feminicide. These include campaigns against rape, circumcision, stoning to death, execution, polygamy, women’s suicide and other assaults and forms of violence against women.
YJA struggles against the social and cultural massacres perpetrated against the Kurdish language, society and culture through assimilation policies by the colonial states. As part of this, YJA carries out activities for the acceptance of Kurdish as a language of education, and fights against auto-assimilation. The activities also include the purpose to protect and develop the Kurdish culture throughout Kurdistan and abroad.

The Field of Legitimate Defence and YJA Star

The Free Women’s Units ‘Star’ – YJA Star regards itself as responsible for the development of the consciousness on legitimate defence and self-defence of women and people in Kurdistan. It is responsible for strengthening the women’s organizations of legitimate self-defence. The mission of YJA Star is to be the force of Kurdish Women’s self-defence with its organizational and struggle experiences as the Women’s Army in the guerrilla forces. It protects women and the Kurdish people against any kind of assaults and attacks. Based on the tradition of the formation of the Free Women’s Army in 1993, the YJA Star has a specifically autonomous structure today.

Living as a woman and a Kurd under the present conditions in Kurdistan and the Middle East means to be confronted with threats, attacks and violation of fundamental rights day-by-day. Even today, Kurdish women and the Kurdish society are still face to face with the danger of massacres and genocide. Therefore, the existence of the YJA Star is essential for the defence and the protection of women and the people in Kurdistan. The YJA Star describes itself as the defence forces for the protection of the KJB and all progressive values that have been gained through the freedom struggle. Against external assaults the YJA Star defends all ideological, political and social revolutionary values. At the same time it develops a consciousness, organization and struggle of self-defence in the society against all kind of oppression and violence against women.

Committee of Young Women

The section of society that is mostly targeted by capitalist modernity under the slogan “sex, sport and art” are the young people. Young people, especially young women need their own specific organizations as to be able to protect themselves against the broad range of ideological, political, psychological and physical assaults they are confronted with. For this reason, the KJB has organized the committee of young women within the context of the youth movement and the grassroots organisations in the society. The aim of organising young women through the committee of young women is to develop the organising, the consciousness and the strength of young women to fight on the basis of the women’s liberation ideology; to incorporate the dynamism of youth with the consciousness of women’s freedom for playing an active role in changing and transforming the society. This means also to take a historical responsibility for the continuity of women’s struggles from the perspective of the women’s movement. Young women fight against the social, cultural and economic suppression which they are exposed to by reactionary parts of the society and the system. At the same time they resist against the supremacy of the old people trying to use the transformative energy of the youngsters to for their own profits.

The main duties of young women’s committees include the fight against policies of the states that are dominating Kurdistan. Thus, it raises conscious and mobilizes young women against the spread of prostitution, drugs, trafficking of women and children, the recruitment of women and young people informants of intelligence services or their exploitation as cheap labour forces due to poverty and the destruction of social perspectives. At the same time the committee of the young women works towards the fact, that young generations take over responsibility for social liberation and the new construction of a free, democratic society.

The model of the KJB has asserted itself in Kurdistan as a new alternative and functioning women’s organizing system.One result of it is the strong and self-confident participation of women in politics and all areas of the society. Nowadays it has become a self-evident fact that women take part in all social processes in Kurdistan. Today the slogan „Jin, Jîyan, Azadî!“ („Women, life, freedom!“), which is present on all demonstrations and meetings, has evolved into a philosophy of social life in Kurdistan.

Koma Jinên Bilind – KJB

March, 2011

John Dolva · February 25, 2015

Join us in North Kurdistan on March 8!

The main Kurdish province of North Kurdistan, Amed, is preparing to host women from around the world on International Women’s Day, March 8.

This year’s World Women’s March will start from the region in support of the women’s struggle, primarily in Rojava. The women’s organizations have completed the work for the program of this year’s March 8 events and organized a joint press conference to announce it. The press conference was jointly held by Amed co-mayor Gültan Kışanak, Party of Democratic Regions (DBP) Amed Branch co-chair Hafize İpek and members of KJA (Kurdistan Women’s Communities).

This year’s activities around March 8 will take place under the main slogan “Let’s get organized together with the women resisting in Kobanê and liberate life.” Speaking at the press conference, DBP Amed branch co-chair Hafize İpek said that 3 main marches will take place within the framework of the March 8 activities, starting on March 6 in Nusaybin, on March 7 in Mardin and on March 8 in Amed, calling on all women to come together to build solidarity and to step up the struggle for women’s liberation. Amed co-mayor Gültan Kışanak emphasized the importance of the World Women’s March starting from the region, drawing attention to the struggle of women in Rojava and the revolution there that is led by women.

“The women’s organizations worldwide have turned their faces to Rojava and are taking strength from the women’s revolution achieved there,” Gültan Kışanak said, adding that Amed will host this year’s World Women’s March. The marches in Nusaybin, Mardin and Amed will take place within the framework of the World March, as well as other activities to be held over 4 days.

The Amed co-mayor called on all of the women in the city to take part in the march on March 8, adding that this year’s activities are all the more important as many women from all over the world will be in Amed to share and to strengthen the women’s struggle that is growing in Kurdistan, paving the way for the liberation of women.

Meanwhile, it has been documented that the woman whose body was found in an abandoned cottage in the Akhisar district of Manisa and whose name has not yet been identified had been burned alive, according to an autopsy report. The autopsy on the body of the woman was completed at the Izmir Forensic Institute. According to the initial autopsy report, the woman was set on fire while she was still alive. According to the first findings that have still to be confirmed, the woman is thought to have been between 29-to-49 years of age. The exact cause of death will become clear after a more detailed autopsy has been carried out at the Istanbul Forensic Institute.

In the area where her body was found the crime scene investigation team found a fragment of leggings which are thought to be hers. Police also interrogated the owner of the garden where the body was found. As the garden is far away from the town, there are no CCTV records that could help to solve the murder.

We intervene with news of this case in order to again underscore the need for all women to hit the streets on March 8 and to engage in solidarity actions across the imposed borders.

The People's Democratic Party has issued the following appeal:

Dear All,

You are kindly invited to the World March of Women 2015 which will start from Nusaybin on the 6th of March and meet with the 8th of March meeting in Diyarbakir.

The World March of Women will salute the resistance of Kobanê this year and will gather to act in solidarity with the women's revolution in Kurdistan.

The invitation video is here:

We are looking forward to see you among us!

Kind regards,

Steven Gaal · February 28, 2015

TURKEY PULSE

TÜRKİYE'NİN NABZI

Syrian ethnic Kurds demonstrate after Friday prayers in the Syrian town of Qamishli, May 6, 2011. (photo by REUTERS)

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Will 'Kurdish Spring' redraw Middle East map?

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Author: Cengiz ÇandarPosted February 5, 2015

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It was almost three years ago that Barham Salih, then prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), on seeing me for the first time after an unusually long interval, shouted from the distance, even before we greeted each other: “The Kurdish moment has arrived!”

Summary

His jubilant mood reflected the sentiments shared by most of the Kurds around the region. In the aftermath of the Arab Spring upheavals that started in North Africa, rapidly moved to the Levant and took a violent turn in Syria, the insurgent organization of the Kurds of Turkey had begun to issue calls to begin a “Kurdish Spring” by the year 2011. The KRG’s self-confidence was boosted by international oil magnates rushing in to explore and produce Kurdistani hydrocarbons, bringing with them not only the technological inputs but also the much-needed legitimacy for the quasi-independent Kurdish entity.

The Syrian Kurds had started to exercise self-rule in the three cantons, though lacking territorial continuity along the long Turkish-Syrian frontier. The one around the largest Syrian Kurdish town, Qamishli, was also at the proximity of the KRG, the other around Kobani at the midpoint of the 911-kilometer (566-mile) Turkish-Syrian border and the third around Afrin, which was also right across the Turkish border, a half-hour drive from the largest city of Syria, Aleppo, where nearly a half-million Kurds lived.

Since then, a new phenomenon was added to the map of the Middle East in the name of the Islamic State (IS), which declared itself a caliphate under Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on June 29. Controlling large tracts of land in eastern Syria and the western and northwestern parts of Iraq, IS has become the neighbor of the KRG, having the longest frontier, nearly 1,000 kilometers (621 miles), which is judged as the line of confrontation. IS emerged as the main threat to Kurdish self-rule in Syria. The siege of Kobani compelled US President Barack Obama's administration to respond, forming an anti-IS coalition and pounding IS positions with US-led coalition aircraft. Kobani was hailed as the “Stalingrad of the Kurds,” adding an epic dimension to Kurdish nation-building that was accelerated on the ashes of the Arab Spring, which is no longer blossoming.

The resistance of Kobani that ended with the withdrawal of IS has become the pride of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the leading Kurdish party of the resistance. It was considered the Syrian affiliate of Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which was banned and listed as a terrorist organization by the US State Department and the European Union since the latter half of the 1990s to appease Turkey, a NATO ally that has become a disappointment for not joining the West’s policies against IS.

The Kurds, ranging from Barzani’s KRG to its main competitor, Turkey’s villain, Abdullah Ocalan’s PKK and its Syrian affiliate, PYD, presented themselves as the most valiant and reliable resistance forces for the Western world’s anti-IS drive

The paradox is that Turkey is engaging the PKK by talking directly with its leader, Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence on Turkey’s prison island, Imrali. Turkey’s strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has seemingly lost any residue of sympathy in Washington and in most of the EU capitals, has his closest ally in the Middle East as Massoud Barzani, the president of the KRG.

Since the inauguration of the Arab Spring in Tunisia and with the removal of President Hosni Mubarak's regime in Egypt in February 2011, the talk that dominated was whether we would be witnessing the end of the Sykes-Picot order in the region with a new map.

The Arab Spring ultimately produced the human tragedy and carnage in Syria and began to be called “Arab Winter” by some Western pundits. If there is any reference to a new map for the Middle East, it is drawn by IS with unrecognized and illegitimate boundaries.

However, it is still far from certain what history is shaping for the Kurds’ destiny and how a new map might be drawn in the Middle East.

There could be no better timing for a book with the title “Kurdish Spring: A New Map for the Middle East.” A 264-page, very reader-friendly book from Transaction Publishers, it was published on Dec. 22, 2014. It has a foreword by Bernard Kouchner, the former French minister of foreign affairs who has a very good reputation in the region, greater than his ministerial title, as the co-founder of Médécins Sans Frontiéres (Doctors Without Borders),

Not surprisingly, the author is David Phillips, a Columbia University professor, a former State Department official known for his close relationship with the late US envoy Richard Holbrooke. Kouchner describes him as “The Activist Professor” and defines him in the following lines:

“Political science keeps events at bay and touches upon them with caution. David L. Phillips loves to embrace them. If you get lost in the day-to-day confusion of events, read his book and you will be able to distinguish what is important from the mundane. … Phillips knows how to project the real world into stale lecture rooms. To commentators and diplomats alike, he is a reality detector, and for us all, a lightning rod in times of confusion.”

In Phillips’ own words: “‘The Kurdish Spring’ draws on my experience as a practitioner and scholar of Kurdish issues for over twenty-five years. I have been engaged in various capacities, working with the US Congress, as a US official, at think tanks, institutes, and universities. Based on my experience, Kurds are one of America’s best and most reliable friends in the Middle East. …

“The Kurds are at a historic crossroads. This book tells their story. There are many scholars knowledgeable about Kurdish issues and the Middle East. However, few have been involved in Kurdish issues for as long as I have. Few have my experience working with Kurds across party lines and in different countries. Few have been engaged as both a scholar, activist and as an official. These pages describe the tragic history of betrayal and abuse experienced by the Kurds. They also tell a hopeful story of progress, with Kurds poised to realize their rights and national aspirations.”

While reading, I came across some minor errors — such as the exact date of the PKK’s declaration of its first cease-fire. There could be some people who might disagree with the analysis of the author on certain issues pertinent to the history of the Kurds and the Kurdish struggle. Nonetheless, nothing prevents the book from being the most concise account on the history of the Kurds of Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran since David McDowall’s seminal book “A Modern History of the Kurds” (I.B. Tauris, 1996).

It is an updated, a very fresh information arsenal on the Kurdish issue and Kurdish history. There is no doubt that it will take its rightful place on the bookshelves of everyone around the world concerned with the issues of the Middle East, despite that its content is less scholarly but more of a “Kurdish issue for Beginners” or “Overall Kurdish History 101” for the English-reading public.

It can be seen as a wake-up call for the US administration from a pro-Kurdish independence pundit implying that it is high time for the United States to assist Kurdish efforts for the eventual independent state of the Kurds in the region, so that the map of the Middle East could change.

It is good for Phillips’ book that he did not elaborate further. The future of the Middle East is so uncertain that even many Kurds would love to consider what is happening or what still may occur as the “Kurdish Spring,” but it is still far from certain what is in store for them.

We should consider “The Kurdish Spring: A New Map for the Middle East” to be one of the main reference sources that will ably serve all those concerned with the Middle East and the Kurdish issues.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/02/turkey-kurds-kurdish-spring-david-phillips.html##ixzz3SzmgoM4Z

Edited February 28, 2015 by Steven Gaal

John Dolva · February 28, 2015

The essential humanism of radical activity in Turkey, North Kurdistan, Rojava and Germany

ProgressiveMovementTurkey.jpg.CROP.recta

This post might be better labeled as “Our morality and theirs” as we are trying to demonstrate again that the social movements working throughout Turkey, North Kurdistan and Rojava, the Kurdish freedom movement and Rojava’s revolution work with a very different moral compass than does the Turkish state or ISIS or, for that matter, the EU and the US. We want to again underscore this today. It is not that we are on a particular moral crusade or that we believe that we are “better” than our opponents, but that the history and position of truly revolutionary, democratic and progressive movements gives us a path to a human future while those we are opposing us work very hard to push the world backwards and even to destruction. We will cite here some of the current items which give us hope and push us to action.

* The town of Til Hemîs in revolutionary Rojava’s Cizîrê Canton has been cleansed of ISIS gangs and has been fully liberated after seven days of fighting led by Rojava’s heroic YPG/YPJ (People's/ Women's Defense Units). Til Hemîs area was being used by the ISIS groups as their headquarters in Cizîrê Canton.

The joint operation to liberate the region was launched on February 21 by the YPG/YPJ, units affiliated to the Syriac Military Council, Sutoro forces and Cêsh al-Senadid (Army of the Brave), which is the military force of the Arab tribes in the region. Peshmerga forces at the border with South Kurdistan and the US-led anti-ISIS coalition assisted. Twenty-two villages and some strategic points were recovered from ISIS on the first day of the operation and 18 more villages were liberated by February 23. The fighting continued with victories leading up to the expansive resistance movement push which liberated the town. At least 211 ISIS fighters were killed in the operation, including field commanders or amirs. People in Cizîrê Canton have poured out into the streets to celebrate the victory on hearing about the accomplishment of the operation.

* The Kaya family emigrated from the Savur district of Mardin to the Seyhan district of Adana in 1980. Their daughter Ayşe Kaya (Mizgin Arap) joined the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) in 1993 and lost her life during a battle in Dersim in 1998. Her brother Veysi Kaya then picked up the flag from his sister. He self-immolated in a protest in Adana and died. Ceylan Atilla, a niece in the family, then joined the liberation movement and was martyred in a clash with El Nusra gangs in Hesekê in 2013.

After Ceylan Atilla was martyred, seventeen-year-old Abdulkadir Atila joined the Kurdish freedom movement. He also self-immolated in a protest in Adana on March 11, 2012. A note that he wrote beforehand said, “Ya ruhi ya ceni Apo" in Arabic, which means “Either my life or my death Apo.” This refers to Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdish liberation movement. Both Abdulkadir and Veysi died protesting Abdullah Öcalan’s imprisonment.

Muhittin Kaya, the uncle of Veysi and Ayşe Kaya (Mizgin Arap) and also a member of the General Council of the HDK (Peoples' Democratic Congress), said, "We are an Arabic family affected by the personality and paradigm of Leader Apo who is in favor of humanity, nature and universality. We are always with the legitimate struggle of the Kurdish people. Every part of the world and in Kurdistan, Kurds have always been oppressed and exposed to cruelty. We are always with the Kurdish people and Leader Apo. We will boost the Kurdish freedom movement."

Our US readers should understand that the Turkish government and other regional reactionary forces work very hard to drive wedges between Turkish, Kurdish and Arabic peoples. The liberation movement works very hard to overcome racism.

* The co-president of the Higher Commission of Election in Rojava’s Efrîn Canton, Pêşeng Mûrad, has stated that the commission has started working on organizing their elections and that preparations are going to be completed by July. Pêşend Mûrad told the ANHA news service that the commission is made up of 9 men and 9 women and started their official work earlier this week. “We have elected co-presidents and spokesperson of the commission. We also have a committee who is working on the charter of the election,” Pêşeng said. Pêşeng Mehmûd also noted that they are in contact with all of the municipalities of Efrîn Canton and are expected to complete the preparations for the elections in five months.

We want to remind our US readers that this valuable democratic work goes on as Rojava is fighting for its life as a revolutionary entity and without a centralized state apparatus. Crises are often used to curtail rights, but for the peoples of Rojava their answer to crisis has been social freedioms and struggle.

* The German Die Linke (Left Party) has been an important part of the struggle to lift the ban placed against the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) and free Abdullah Öcalan. Die Linke deputy Andrej Hunko recently said that deputies from all parties want the ban to be lifted, but that the state security apparatus, or deep state, wants to maintain it.

The ban on the PKK was introduced by the conservative Helmut Kohl government on November 26, 1993. Now, more than 21 years later, the ban is one of the most discussed issues in Germany at the moment. Due to the effective struggle waged by the PKK guerrillas and YPG/YPJ fighters against ISIS gangs many people there now consider the ban to be meaningless. Recent mass protests in Europe have pushed the point that the ban must be lifted and that Abdullah Öcalan must be freed as part of the struggle against terrorism. Still, the Merkel-led Christian Democrat-Social Democrat coalition government insist that the ban will be maintained. Die Linke has moved forward with a parliamentary debate over the issues even as some of their deputies have faced repression for publicly protesting around the ban.

Andrej Hunko has said that the aim is not merely to have the ban lifted in Germany, but at the same time to ensure that the PKK is removed from the EU list of terrorist organizations. “The EU extends the list of banned organizations every 6 months. We want Germany to say ‘no’ to the PKK remaining on the list at the next meeting,” he said. He added that members of the coalition parties agreed with them that the ban should be lifted, but that the state security apparatus had not changed their stance on the Kurdish movement. “We can compare the Interior Ministry, the police and intelligence to the deep state structures in Turkey,” he said.

Andrej Hunko said that it is not only Abdullah Öcalan’s position and works which have affected matters. He also cited the positive attitude in Europe to Selahattin Demirtaş’s candidacy in the Presidential elections, the role of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey and developments in Sinjar and Kobanê as contributing to this process. Thus, Andrej Hunko and his party have an excellent grasp of how the freedom movement, democratization and specific individuals and organizations are achieving a kind of synergy across the region.

* A racist mob operating under police supervision attacked the Party of Democratic Regions (DBP) building in Adiyaman province. The mob formed at Mimar Sinan Park and marched towards the DBP building without police interference and then threw stones and broke the windows and doors of the building. Turkish police fired tear gas at those inside the building and detained DBP Provincial Co-chair Zeynel Mutlu, Central District Co-chair Abuzer Küçükşahin, district executive Ali Rıza Uğur, Hasan Alper, Gök Kaya and two others inside the building but did nothing to stop the attack. Many people attempted to protect the building and stop the mob and chanted "Long live President Apo!", "Shoulder in shoulder against fascism!" and "Kurdistan will become grave to fascism!".

* A group of students at Bingöl University have started a hunger strike in protest against the unjust actions of the university administration, including investigations and disciplinary punishments brought against the students. The indefinite and alternate hunger strike was initiated by the Bingöl University Students' Union (BÜÖ-DER) is now in its fourth day. The students are holding their strike at the office of the education workers’ union Eğitim Sen.

The head of Bingöl Bar Association, Abdullah Alakuş, and members of the Bar's Executive Committee have visited the students and extended their solidarity. Abdullah Alakuş said that lawyers from the Bar are preparing to take the disciplinary punishments given by the university administration to court. He said that these practices by the university administration violate the student’s rights to education, and he added that the students started their hunger strike as a last resort.

The head of the Eğitim Sen Bitlis branch, Metin Kılıç, said that they held three meetings with the university administration but that the administration has denied any responsibility for the issues being brought forth by the students. He also said that the head of the security in the university, who is a former police officer, was behind the incidents that have creates distress for the students and that he threatened the students.

The students on strike have given detailed information to bar about the policies pursued by the university administration against the students, and they reiterated their determination not to step back in their struggle against the unjust university policies.

* Four young people have been taken into custody by police in the Güçlükonak district of Şırnak and one other has been taken into custody in the Bulanık district of Muş as police continue their crackdown and the wave of arrests of young people continues.

Eleven people were detained in Fındık town of the Güçlükonak district of Şırnak as part of an investigation aimed at people who wrote slogans on walls to support the October 6-8 protests in solidarity with the Kobane resistance. People who were summoned to the police station have been accused of writing slogans on the walls in favor of the YPG, PKK and the Kurdish Leader Abdullah Öcalan. Seven of the 11 people taken to the police station were released after giving testimony, but 4 young people have been sent to the Cizre courthouse.

In the meantime, detentions are also continuing in the Bulanık district of Muş. Yesterday evening a young person by the name of Hebun Topcu was taken into custody while playing football with his friends in the Zafer neighborhood. The reason for his detention has not been announced, but he has been taken to police headquarters in the Güroymak district of Bitlis

Steven Gaal · February 28, 2015

News Middle East

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Saturday 28 February 2015

Dissent among EU leaders over calls to renew relations with Syria's Assad

John Irish

Published 27/02/2015 | 15:03

Open Gallery 1Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has been isolated internationally for much of the Syrian Civil War

France and Britain have dismissed suggestions of restoring relations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, saying such a move would push moderates into the arms of radical Islamist groups.

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With the rise of Islamic State insurgents, some European |Union member states are critical of the position in Paris and London and say it might be time to re-establish communication with Damascus given that a four-year-old revolt has failed to overthrow Assad.

In a column published in Arabic daily Al-Hayat and France's Le Monde, the French and British foreign ministers hit back at those who sought a rapprochement with Assad by saying he was using the fear of Islamic State, which has seized wide areas of northern and eastern Syria, to win back international support.

"Some seem sensitive to this argument," Laurent Fabius and Philip Hammond wrote. "In reality, Bashar represents injustice, chaos and terror. We, France and Britain, say no to all three."

There have also been calls from some politicians and former officials in both countries for a new strategy. This week a four-man cross-party delegation of French parliamentarians travelled to Syria and some met with Assad, and triggering a national debate on the issue.

Former British Army chief Lord Dannant has previously said countries would have to work with Assad to defeat Islamic State, while the UN envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said earlier this month that Assad must be part of the solution for defusing the conflict in Syria.

"After 220,000 deaths and millions displaced, it is illusory to imagine that a majority of Syrians would accept to be ruled by the one who torments them," Fabius and Hammond wrote.

"To end their hopes of a better future in a Syria without Assad would be to radicalise even more Syrians, push moderates towards extremism and consolidate a jihadist bastion in Syria."

An initially peaceful street uprising against Assad spiralled into a civil war that has seen a level of suffering some diplomats say justify reestablishing contacts with Damascus in pursuit of a political solution.

Britain and France see Assad's departure as a precondition of peace negotiations but the collapse of his government has become less likely as the war grinds on inconclusively.

"For our own security, we must defeat Islamic State in Syria. We need a partner that can act against extremists. We need a negotiated political settlement," Hammond and Fabius said, and a compromise would be needed between elements of the existing government and relatively moderate opponents of Assad.

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Reuters

John Dolva · March 1, 2015

Answering Austria's racism
We read today that Turkish President Erdoğan has made certain criticisms of Austria on Feb. 28 for approving a reactionary bill that revises the status of Muslims in the European country. The Social Democratic Party and the People’s Party cooperated to prepare and have passed a bill which requires that includes provisions requiring imams to be able to speak German, standardizing the Quran in the German language, and banning Islamic organizations from receiving foreign funding. The bill has its origins in current-day racism, to be sure, but "Islam Gesetz" was introduced by Franz Josef after the Austro-Hungarian Empire annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina. The latest Austrian move gave Erdoğan an issue and allowed him to talk tough about protecting Muslims in Austria. A new and dangerous line is thus being drawn which turns class, ethnic and religious interests on their heads. We thought of a statement issued by the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) in early February which takes up some of the key questions here. We have not edited the statement.

Since the development from capitalism to imperialism the imperialists and collaborators have found and tried numerous ways to split the working class and deprive it from its real power. Some of these methods were adjusted from the past and the societies and updated them appropriate to the current conditions. However, some of them were newly discovered and developed. Our class was divided into different sexes, nations, ethnics, cultures and religions; the deparateness, patriarchy, nationalism and chauvinism of the people in this system who are being oppressed and exploited are used for their own aims.

At least since September 11, the new enemy stereotype especially formed for the Western imperialists has been clearly defined. This is Islam and everything related to it. This enemy stereotype has been used as a means to start numerous wars in the Middle East without experiencing real resistance by its own people or international institutions such as the UN they are dominating.

It helped them to stir up fear against an enemy that doesn't exist or has been created by them in form of Islamic terror groups ( Al-Quaeda, Taliban, IS) and with the help of reactionary rejimes. This fear helped not only to lead wars abroad but also to cut their people's own rights immensely as well as to abolish most of the migrants' rights. Examples for that are the Anti-terror laws and the abolition of the right to apply for asylum in many countries. The attacks in France (Charlie Hebdo) short time ago are used by the ruling classes for that aim.

The Anti-islam movements now formed in many European countries (like PEGIDA in Germany - “Batı'nın İslamlaşmasına Karşı Yurtsever Avrupalılar”) and developing national and racist parties are the prey of the rage the imperialists harvested. Again migrants' homes and mosques are set on fire, migrants are chased and beaten.

When we look at these movements in Germany we can see many new fascist structures such as the fascist NPD, new right-wing party such as the “Alternative for Germany” and violent fascist groups and hooligans. Since mid October the weekly demonstrations in many German cities that started in Dresden and that are mainly organised and radicalised by these right-wing and fascist structures. Especially in Eastern Germany thousands of people of the middle class follow these fascist slogans on the streets. The organisators of Pegida argue in the sense of Huntington's theoretical construct of the „Clash of Cultures“. Islam is meant to be a hostile culture against the „West“ threatening the Western culture and fighting against it. The fascist organisators of this movement consciously make use of lies and false information. For that they use the agitation of the bourgeois media and politicians lasting for years and have a platform to spread racism. Although Pegida seems to be against racism at first sight, it becomes quickly clear that this movement's racism and hatred of foreigners aims at all migrants and refugees. Many bourgeois politicians and media demanded a dialogue and acceptance of these racist positions.

Pegida is the first big formation that organises the clash of cultures in Germany. Consisting of some different forces of bourgeois parties, some parts of the bourgeois media and the German secret service; going back to racist, neonazi and other reactionary forces and is a racist movement ideologically living from the clash of cultures.

Spreading racism through not-open fascist appearing structures and movements is a change of strategy of the ruling class in Germany and other European countries. From the success of mobilising Pegida had and the growing election success of right-wing populist parties it becomes clear that this strategy is a fertile ground.

It is the task of all anti-fascist, progressive, revolutionary and communist forces to stand up against such racist and fascist movements and organisations, to fight against any agitation that the imperialists use to split the working class and peoples of the world and to use it for their aims. A broad anti-fascist and anti-chauvinist struggle must be led to fight back this chauvinist and racist agitation and to block the ruling class' plans to split us. Despite these splitting methods the working class shouldn't leave its path, the working class must stand up together against its exploiters and walk towards the revolution. This is what we need to reach with our struggle against the ruling class' agitation.

"The resistance against fascism in Greece is for us the same as the resistance against ISIS in Kobanê."

We have had more news to post and comment on than expected today. We will try to catch readers up with some items over the past two days which have been the most interesting to us.

* Turkey's Constitutional Court has ruled that Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Sebahat Tuncel, who was sentenced for being a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), should be retried, as her right to a free and timely trial was violated. The court ruled yesterday that Sebahat Tuncel’s file should be sent back to the related court to remove the violation and its results.
Sebahat Tuncel was detained in Istanbul in 2006 under the charge that she was holding regular meetings with Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) members. She was also accused of going to a PKK camp in northern Iraq and meeting with senior members of the organization in 2004. She was later released after she was elected as a deputy in the July 27, 2007 elections.

However, an Istanbul high criminal court sentenced her to eight years and nine months in 2012, which was approved by the Court of Appeals. She remained free due to her immunity as a lawmaker.
Due to internal HDP rules, Sebahat Tuncell is not expected to run for a seat in the June 7 elections as she has already served as a deputy for three consecutive terms.

* Freedom and Solidarity Party’s (ÖDP) Izmir Provincial board member and United June Movement Izmir coordination member Onur Kılıç has been released from Buca Prison, where he had beenm held under charges of insulting the president. The Progressive Lawyers Union (ÇHD) Izmir Branch had worked on his behalf and helped secured his release. Amnesty International also took an interest in the case. We previously mentioned this case and the United June Movement around the time Onur Kılıç was arrested.

Onur Kılıç was detained on February 12 after a anti-terror police raided an apartment he was visiting. He was charged with having insulted Turkey's president at a protest sponsored by the United June Movement in Izmir on January 11. The demonstration was in support of demands for secular and scientific education. Kılıç wass accused of calling the president a “thief and killer.”

After his detention, Onur Kılıç wrote a tweet explaining the incident and added, “By the way, let me repeat: thief-killer Erdoğan!” His first motion concerning his arrest was rejected by the Izmir 5th Peace Court on February 18. Upon that, another motion was submitted to Izmir 6th Peace Court. A last motion had been submitted yesterday morning.

* DBP (Party of Democratic Regions) Siirt leader Mahfuz Dündar was taken into custody by anti-terror police while on his way home the night before last. The DBP leader waw sent to the Siirt E Type Closed Prison yesterday after the a prison sentence of six years and three months was approved.

* The Initiative to Close Children's Prisons protested the recent intimidation and sexual harassment of child prisoners outside of the Diyarbakir E-type prison yesterday. Members of the Human Rights Association (İHD) in Şırnak also launched a petition campaign to close children's prisons in coordination with the protest.

Young prisoners have recently reported sexual harassment in the Aliağa Şakran Children's Prison in Izmir. Children in the Van M-type prison also recently reported that people dressed in Islamic dress attempted to recruit them to join ISIS. A report in mainstream Turkish media about the brutal killing of a teenage prison inmate by other inmates has also created some controversy in Turkey. These reports have drawn attention to the widespread rights abuses in Turkey's youth corrections system.
Lawyer Gamze Yalçın, speaking on behalf of the coordinating members of the Initiative, said that the justice system for children in Turkey does not meet universal standards and is rife with abuses of children's basic human rights. She noted that the torture of children was extremely widespread during the wave of arrests that have followed the October 6-7 the uprising for Kobanê across Turkey's Kurdish cities.

Human rights associations attempted throughout 2014 to gain access to the Izmir prison in order to analyze the extent of the rights violations taking place there, Gamze said, but the Ministry of Justice had denied them access. The five basic demands of the initiative are as follows: a children-specific alternative to the current model that imprisons children in closed institutions; for institutions of punishment and execution to be open to analysis by human rights organizations and NGOs; for those who violate children's rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to be punished; for effective investigations into rights abuses against imprisoned children and an end to impunity for perpetrators; and for all children's prisons, which generate violence and damage children's psycho-social development, to be closed.

The Şirnak meeting to announce the signature campaign was led by the İHD and attended by representatives from a number of parties and institutions, including Şırnak Co-mayor Eylem Onuk, members of the Party of Democratic Regions (DBP) and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), MEYA-DER, which advocates for the relatives of those lost in the war in the Kurdish region, TUHAD-FED, an organization for solidarity with the families of prisoners, Zahide Women's Solidarity Center, and KURDÎ-DER, which supports the literary and cultural development in Kurdish.

* Turkish police detained and then released some Kurdish journalists who were on duty in Suruç at the border of North Kurdistan and Rojava yesterday. Dicle News Agency reporter İbrahim Polat, Daily Azadiya Welat editor Bışar Durgut and their Suruç representative Mustafa Taşdemir were attacked and detained by police yesterday after filing reports from Suruç. The Kurdish journalists were released after having been detained for 5 hours.

The Kurdish journalists went to the district late on Thursday. They witnessed police opening fire on a vehicle carrying Müslam Ayhan and his wife after allegedly refusing to obey a "stop" warning. The journalists wanted to record the incident and police attacked them as they attempted to do so. Footage showing the police attack on the Ayhan family was published by the Kurdish media. Fellow Kurdish journalists reported the repression directed against their colleagues and kept a vigil for those detained.

* Turkish police detained 11 people, including 4 minors, in Güçlükonak for allegedly doing grafitti during the mass October 6-8 Kobanê resistance and protests in the Güçlükonak district of Şırnak. Police claimed that these people wrote slogans in support of Kobanê, the PKK, Rojava's heroic People's/Women's Defense Forces (YPG/YPJ) and imprisoned Kurdish freedom movement leader Abdullah Öcalan. Seven of those arrested were released, but minors ranging in age from 14 to 17 remain in custody.

* A Kobanê Solidarity Delegation made up of Syriza and other Greek left party members visited Amed (Diyarbakır) Metropolitan Co-mayor Gültan Kışanak yesterday. The delegation split into three parts, with one group visiting Kobanê, one visiting Diyarbakır/Amed and one going to Antep. Gültan Kışanak thanked the Diyarbakır delegation, made up of members of the Syriza youth group, other left parties, teachers and pharmacists, for their sensitivity and solidarity with the tragedy in Kobanê. "The resistance against fascism in Greece is for us the same as the resistance against ISIS in Kobanê," the co-mayor told the group. Gültan Kışanak is a member of the Party of Democratic Regions (DBP).

"Kobanê has been a vehicle for solidarity between people. The resistance there was not just one people's defense of themselves and their territory. It was resistance in the name of human values, in the name of democracy," Gültan Kışanak explained.

European Parliament member Georgios Karatsioubanis said that the group had led a campaign to gather aid, including medicine and foodstuffs, and that solidarity organizations in Greece and Europe are currently holding meetings on the subject. But the delegation's goal, said Georgios, was not just to contribute materially to Kobanê solidarity, but also to build stronger lines of communication in the region. "Our goal is to ensure closeness between the Kurds and Greeks, to increase communication and dialogue. There may be a sea between us, but we have a shared culture. And besides that, we are engaged in the same struggle against fascism and capitalism." The two sides exchanged gifts, with the group presenting a sign reading "solidarity" and the co-mayor presenting a plaque to the delegation.
Posted by Urun Harvest at 4:23 PM No comments:
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German Greens and Social Democrats side with the government, sacrifice Kurdish interests and democracy
Yesterday we mentioned in passing on this blog some news about efforts to get the ban on the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) lifted in Germany. Our short piece highlighted the good work done by Die Linke (Left Party) in this struggle.

The debate over lifting the ban on the PKK began two days ago in the Bundestag and the German government opposed the Left Party motion calling for an end to the ban. The government admitted that the PKK is doing good things in fighting ISIS, but argued that the ban should be maintained. It seemed clear to many people that once again Germany is sacrificing the Kurds for its political and economic agreements with Turkey.

During the debate in the German Federal Parliament, Clemens Binninger, the spokesperson of the Christian Democrats and Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) government, said that he was in favor of the ban being maintained and opposed the Die Linke (Left Party) motion. The ban has been in place since 1993. Some of the debate was focused on whether the ban helps or hurts the peace or resolution process underway between the Kurdish liberation movement, including the PKK, and the Turkish government.

Seventy-three deputies were present for the debate, which lasted just 25 minutes. Representatives of the CDU-CSU, Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Die Linke all spoke, each making their parties’ position on the ban clear.

Ulla Jelpke spoke on behalf of the Left Party, pointing out that the ban criminalizes nearly a million Kurds living in Germany, adding that it is time for the ban to be lifted. She said that the PKK was fighting ISIS in Sinjar and in Rojava, saving thousands of people from the threat of massacre. She also underlined that PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan is involved in the on-going peace talks and that lifting the ban would lend impetus to this process.

Binninger is a former police chief and a member of the Interior Ministry Commission, and he referred in his remarks to a report of the German intelligence organization claiming that there are still reasons for the maintenance of the ban. He admitted that the PKK had done good things in fighting ISIS and rescuing Yazidis and Christians, but said that that does not mean that the ban should be lifted.

Marian Wendt of the CDU claimed that the PKK carried out "terrorist" actions in Turkey and took young people from Europe to take part in conflict, adding, “The PKK has never been our friend. The Left Party should realise this.”

SPD deputy Ulu Grötsch also referred to intelligence reports in advocating for a continuation of the ban, whereas Irene Mihalic, on behalf of the Greens, said that the PKK should be given a chance, but fell hort of taking a principled position against the ban. Following the speeches by party representatives, the Left Party motion was sent to the parliamentary sub-commission, and is expected to be put to the vote in the next session of parliament. Grötsch and Mihalic justified their position by citing protests by Kurds last year over Kobanê when Kurds occupied places such as airports and railway stations.

NAV-DEM (the Democratic Society Center of Kurds in Germany) Co-president Yüksel Koç condemned the SPD and Green deputies for supporting the continuation of the PKK ban at Thursday evening’s debate in the German Federal Parliament. The NAV-DEM Co-president also accused the SPD and the Greens of hypocrisy and said that nearly a thousand protests in 120 towns in Germany over Kobanê all passed off peacefully. “For instance, in Düsseldorf 100,000 people marched and nothing happened. The police even rang us and thanked us because the protests passed off without incident.” Yüksel Koç said.

Yüksel Koç also said that SPD deputy Ulli Grötsch had claimed that there were clashes between Salafists and Kurds in Hamburg, whereas in reality the Salafists had attacked the Kurds. She said that Salafists had attacked Kurds in many places. She added that in conversations with individual SPD, Green and CDU deputies they had said that they wished that the ban on the PKK could be lifted, but when it came to the debate in parliament they adopted a different stance, one that reflected state policy.

The German Defense Ministry has meanwhile announced that it will send another cargo of heavy weapons and ammunition to the South Kurdistan region. The equipment will be delivered in two stages, totaling 100 tons. The announcement also states that 30 Peshmerga will soon travel to Germany for training in the use of new weapons. The fighters will be sent to the Melborgen military base near Munich. The training will start on March 2 and last two weeks.

What we see from this is that the German government is not opposed to intervening in the region and providing arms to some people, creating a certain imbalance between forces fighting ISIS, and that it is also unwilling to take democratic measures in its own territory that would enable the peace or resolution process underway in Turkey and North Kurdistan and positively aid the fight against ISIS from the people's forces.
Posted by Urun Harvest at 12:17 PM No comments:
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A joint statement from the People's Democratic Party and the state regarding the resolution process and reactions
The People's Democratic Party (HDP) delegation working with imprisoned Kurdish freedom movement leader Abdullah Öcalan on the peace or resolution process underway between the movement and Turkey's government and representatives of the Justice and Development Party (AKP)-led government have held a joint press conference on the process of resolution. The HDP Imrali delegation met recently with leaders of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) in Kandil. The hoped-for and expected joint press conference has been held. HDP deputies Pervin Buldan, İdris Baluken and Sırrı Süreyya Önder today met Deputy Prime Minister Yalçın Akdoğan and Interior Minister Efkan Ala and then made their public presentation. A statement was read out by Sırrı Süreyya Önder. The statement was as follows:

"We are on the verge of an historic decision process. Since the beginning of the process the problem has concerned the transformation of the state. The existing dominant state mentality has always seen this question solely as a means of maintaining power, which has led to it being the victim of violence. Unless strong ties are established with peace and universal democracy we cannot expect rights, justice and equality from the state and society. The process will develop with the recognition of all the communities that have been ostracized throughout the history of the republic.”

“The great responsibility for this question put on our shoulders by history is one that does not just concern our own society, but affects the whole region and even the world. While the century-old equilibrium in the region is being overwhelmed and violence spirals, it is important that perceptions and approaches are developed on the basis of universal human values. There is a need for a dynamic approach given conditions in the region. In the light of this the occasionally faltering process of dialogue has now reached a formal, responsible and serious stage.”

Sırrı Süreyya Önder explained Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan's view on the stage reached in the process by saying, "While taking the 30-year period of conflict to a lasting peace our principal aim has been to reach a democratic resolution. I call on the PKK (Kurdistan Worker's Party) to hold an extraordinary congress in the spring months to take a strategic and historic decision to abandon the armed struggle based on a minimum consensus of principles. This invitation is a historic declaration of the intention to replace the armed struggle with democratic politics. These are the headings which will constitute the backbone of both our real democracy and our great peace: - Democratic politics, its definition and content - Democratic resolution and the recognition of the national and local dimensions of resolution - Legal and democratic guarantees of free citizenship - Headings regarding the relationship of democratic politics to state and society and the institutionalization of this - The socio-economic dimensions of the resolution process - Treating the relationship between democracy and security in the process in a way that will protect public order and freedoms - Legal solutions and guarantees for problems of women, culture and ecology - Development of a pluralistic understanding of the concept of identity, its definition and recognition - The recognition of a democratic republic, common homeland and people with democratic criteria, within a pluralist democratic system with legal and constitutional guarantees. - A new constitution for the purpose of internalizing all this democratic transformation."

Önder concluded his remarks with these words: "There is no doubt that in order for these historic developments to become reality there must be no conflict. We, as the HDP, call on all democratic circles and those who are in favor of peace to support these democratic negotiations and the stage of resolution. We salute all those forces that are working hard for peace, which is now closer than ever.”

Akdoğan said, "We know that in the process of resolution we will achieve an outcome through sincerity, bravery and decisiveness. We consider this statement highlighting democratic politics as a method and the move towards the giving up of arms and the complete ending of actions to be significant. With arms out of the equation democratic development will gain momentum. Ideas and policies with public support gain value in democracies. We are determined to reach an ultimate solution with the blessing and support of our people. We see a new constitution as an important opportunity to resolve many long-standing and chronic problems.”

Responses

HDP Co-president Selahattin Demirtaş answered reporters' questions regarding the joint statement issued by the HDP Imrali delegation and representatives of the AKP government on the process of resolution today. In his remarks made during a visit to Antalya, Selahattin Demirtaş stressed that the statement shouldn't be considered as a move serving the AKP government. He described what has been said as a "very critical step" and said, "We have entered a critical phase for peace and freedom in Turkey."

The HDP Co-president said that they don't want to face yet another deadlock in respect of the so-called internal security package, pointing out that the government should take concrete steps in order to keep the promises it made for a new constitution and democratization in Turkey. "We are very willing to make peace, but this depends on the practices of the government which however promises yet no hope with the policies it pursues and the pressure it puts on the people," he said.

Regarding a question when the PKK will hold the extraordinary congress requested by the Abdullah Öcalan, Selahattin Demirtaş said that a call for the congress could be made after a consensus has been reached on the ten headings highlighted in today's joint statement by the HDP and the AKP.

Selma Irmak, co-chair of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), said that the joint announcement made today regarding the peace and resolution process was the beginning of negotiations. MP Irmak said that for those who were waiting for PKK disarmament "as long as their reasons for taking to the mountains are still there, such a demand is unrealistic." Selma Irmak also called this a critical moment.

"Mr. Öcalan had already said of this joint understanding 'only after a joint announcement can we say we have entered negotiations,'" Selma Irmak said. "Will the negotiations process really develop as public opinion is expecting and turn into negotiations? Or will there be another blockage? We'll see together. But at this stage, this joint announcement is very historic and we don't think it's wrong to see it as a sign of the beginning of negotiations." She also said that for there to be a real negotiations process, it is necessary for the recent "Internal Security Law" that attacks people's basic rights to be withdrawn. In its place "a law that broadens democracy, rights and freedoms" should be brought to the Parliament, a move more appropriate to the negotiations. "Mr. Öcalan has said one thing from the beginning," said Irmak. "'We see weapons as a vehicle forced on us.' At every opportunity he says, 'At the point where a democratic solution was blocked, when all roads before us were blocked, we were forced to resort to armed struggle. But we've actually never been in love with this.'"

Selma Irmak said that the Kurdish problem faces the same issue today: the road to a democratic solution is consistently blocked. Laying down weapons is "easy," she said. "But to make weapons unnecessary, to take them off the table it's necessary that certain measures be taken" to make democratic politics possible. "It's like this in all negotiations processes," she said, and she called for steps toward democratization to take place as quickly as possible so that before the spring PKK congress it will be possible for guerrillas to consider laying down arms.

Meanwhile, the People’s Defense Forces Press Office (HPG-BIM) has reported that the Turkish army attempted to launch an operation in the Haftanin area in the guerrilla-controlled Medya Defense Zones. The operation attempt was defeated by the response of the guerrillas.

According to the HPG statement, Turkish soldiers from the Maymun Hill military post located on the border with Haftanin attempted to launch an operation in the area yesterday afternoon. The soldiers had to retreat following a warning fire shot by guerrilla forces in response. Following this activity, mortars were fired from the military post in the Martyr Kendal area around midnight. The HPG-BIM stated that the Turkish army also launched an operation in Nevava village in the Cudi area of Şırnak and in the Rîsor area of the Besta region at around 13:00 today. The HPG said that the operations in these areas are continuing.

The HPG Press Office also reported that Turkish planes are continuing to fly over Medya Defence Zones and gave the following detailed information : From the morning hours of February 27 to this afternoon drone activity took place over the Haftanin area and at the border, while on February 27 between 13:00 and midnight there was intense activity by war planes in the same area. On February 27, aircraft activity took place in Metina area between 18:30 and 19:00, and reconnaissance flights between 19:00 and 21:00. Reconnaissance flights by UAVs were performed over the border of the Zap area between 11:00 and 14:00 and aircraft activity in the same area between 14:00 and14:30 yesterday. Aircraft activity also took place in the area of Xakurke between 14:30 and 16:30, and in the Avashin area between 14:00 and 14:30 yesterday.

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