Proposed Military Strike on Syria

[John Dolva]

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,

Preparations for March 8/International Women's Day in Istanbul and the Congress of Free Women calls for solidarity with Assyrian people

The Istanbul coordinating body of the Congress of Free Women (KJA) has announced their plans for March 8, International Working Women's Day.

At a press conference in Istanbul at the provincial building of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), the KJA representative Türkan Esen related the history of March 8 as a day of struggle against violence against women and the exploitation of women's labor.

The Istanbul March 8 program will include panels and celebrations throughout Istanbul, culminating in a noon rally in Kadıköy on March 8. Türkan said that with the escalating women's rebellion embodied in the Rojava revolution and the reaction to the rape and murder of Özgecan Aslan, this century belongs to women.

"The rebellion of women has come to a head after the murder of Özgecan and it has taken to the streets against all violence against women. This violence is produced, increased and facilitated every day by the AKP," said Türkan. She decried the use of women's bodies as a war field and promised that the movement of free women would escalate their struggle this year.

The KJA also called the recent abduction of 350 mainly women and children members of the Assyrian community "an attack against all women and all humanity" in a separate press conference this weekend.

On February 24, Daesh (ISIS) gangs attacked 35 Assyrian villages on the banks of the Khabur River, a tributary of the Euphrates near Al-Hasakah in Syria. A KJA statement said,"It is a simple example of the fact that patriarchy is an enemy of women. It is genocide. It is femicide. We call on all humanity to stand with this oppressed people and these women against the attack."

The gang members also attacked historic churches and cultural works. "With its anti-human values, Daesh is looting culture and history through the occupation, seizure and removal of a people from their homeland in the Middle East's most ancient soil," the KJA argued.

Pointing out that Daesh had committed these genocidal attacks before through the abduction, rape and the selling of Êzîdî women, the KJA called on international opinion, and especially women, to oppose the attack and stand with the abducted Assyrians.

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[John Dolva]

Preparations for March 8, International Women's Day, are moving forward in Turkey and North Kurdistan

We have previously talked about Nusaybin in North Kurdistan/southeastern Turkey a site for the World Women’s March on March 8. International Women’s Day celebrations are taking place in many towns and strong work is underway preparing for those gatherings and demonstrations. Our report today from combined sources, but we especially want to acknowledge the JIHAN Women’s News Service.

Marxist women fighters from Turkey have called for all women to make 2015 the year of women. These women fought alongside their Kurdish comrades to defend Kobanê and are now working there in construction and they have sent their greetings for March 8, International Working Women's Day, to all the oppressed women and LGBTQI people in the world.

"Seeing 14, 15-year-old girls coming here wanting to defend their homeland affects you like you can't believe," said Ulrike Barbara of TİKKO (Liberation Army of the Workers and Peasants of Turkey). "I've been here for two months but I really regret not coming earlier." Ulrike had long been interested in women's issues while she was in Turkey. She stressed the intimate link between the violence against women and minorities in Turkey and the attacks of the rapist Daesh (ISIS) gangs against Kurdish women, carried out with the logistical support of the Turkish government.

Roza Kutlu of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) said the martyrdom of MLKP Sarya Özgür in Kobanê was one of the factors that moved her to go to Kobanê, but that Kurdish women fighters and martyrs had long been an inspiration for her. Now Arîn Mîrxan, the martyr who sacrificed herself to liberate the city, has also become an inspiration for her and all her comrades.

"The resistance led by the YPJ (Women’s Defense Forces) here has been an example to us all," said Rezzan Işık of the MLKP. "Women walk the streets with confidence here, with guns in their hands. They've made the heroic sacrifices on the front lines—women like Arîn Mîrxan, Sarya Özgür and Kader Ortakaya." She also said that these martyrs in the Kobanê resistance, giving their all against the rapist Daesh gang members, inspired her to fight for and defend herself. Now she has come here hoping to take part in the reconstruction process, saying she wants to help build a woman's city on the site where so many women gave their lives for freedom.

And we have these reports:

İDİL

In the town of İdil in Şırnak province, the KJA (Free Women’s Congress), the district co-chairs and municipal co-mayors of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) and the Party of Democratic Regions (DBP) went to the post office in traditional clothing to send cards to women prisoners as a solidarity action and to begin celebrating March 8. The women left the post office applauding and ululating.

MARDIN

Preparations are continuing in the district of Nusaybin in Mardin province for the start of the World Women’s March which will begin there on March 6. Women gathered in front of the Democracy Park and performed a traditional dance accompanied by flute and drum. Nusaybin Co-mayor Sara Kaya said, "Women from all over the world will come together on March 6-7 and we will draw attention to the meaningless borders placed between women.” She also mentioned the preparations being made, inviting everyone to attend the activities.

Following the reading of a press release, the women gave out leaflets to shop keepers in the town center reading "We are marching until all women are free.”

YÜKSEKOVA

In the town of Yüksekova in Hakkari province the women did not forget women prisoners. Women marched to the post office to send cards to women in prison. A rally will be held in the Musa Anter Culture Park on March 8.

HİZAN

In the town of Hizan in Bitlis province a celebration was organized in the town center by the KJA. Women co-mayors from Hizan, Güroymak, Yüksekova and Tatik attended the celebration. Flags from the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK)and the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) and pictures of the 3 Kurdish women murdered in Paris and of Women’s Defense Forces (YPJ) fighter Arin Mirkan and Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan were displayed. Hundreds of women of all ages who attended the celebration carried YPG/YPJ (People’s/Women’s Defense Forces) and KJA flags and shouted slogans such as "Long live President Apo," "Women, life, freedom" and "There is no life without the president." The references here are to Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdish liberation movement. Following speeches by KJA activists and co-mayors, women performed traditional dances.

ANKARA

The Women's Platform of Ankara's branch of the Confederation of Public Workers' Unions (KESK) will march with the demand that International Working Women's Day become a national holiday.

The march will take place at noon on March 8, the 105th year of International Working Women's Day. In addition to raising their voices against women's exploitation with their continuing demand for March 8 to be a national holiday, the union women and their allies are calling attention to the epidemic of femicide and the continuing lack of a democratic peace in Turkey. As the peace process continues, only the organized struggle of women can build real equality and freedom, said union activist Zeynep Duman.

"We will raise our voice in rebellion against war, violence, femicide, conservatism, flexible work and precarity," Zeynep said. She also said that just 15 days after Özgecan Aslan was murdered, tens more women have been murdered.

SURUC

In Suruç, the border town north of Kobanê, refugee tent city residents have begun their celebrations for March 8, International Women's Day. Many Kobanê residents were forced to migrate there during the fighting and now have no homes to return to.

The Suruç municipal government, which is governed by the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) that advocates for peace and democracy in the Kurdish region, founded the Kader Ortakaya tent city to meet the needs of Kobanê refugees driven from their homes by Daesh (ISIS) attacks. Volunteers and residents struggle to improve their living conditions in the tent city, which is named for the woman slain by Turkish soldiers while trying to cross the border to join the resistance, with cultural activities.

Hundreds of the women in the tent city gathered to send their greetings to the YPJ women fighting just across the border in Kobanê. They sang the revolutionary anthem "ÇerxaŞoreşê" in honor of those who have lost their lives in the struggle for democracy and liberation. The women also celebrated the holiday with traditional erbane music, poetry readings by Kobanê children and speeches from teachers engaged in Kurdish-language education in the camp. Hundreds of women danced traditional Kurdish dances.

The many Kobanê people and solidarity activists living in the tent city have planned a rally for Women's Day for March 6 in the village of Mehser.

WOMEN PRISONERS

We have mentioned the campaign to send March 8 greetings to Turkey's political prisoners above and previously on this blog. The effort is continuing in Amed (Diyarbakır) and Nisêbîn (Nusaybin), with women gathering to send cards and letters.

Postal officials initially met Congress of Free Women (KJA) members with a blockade of the post office in Seyhan, in the province of Adana, when the activists attempted to send greeting cards to women prisoners for March 8. The women resisted until the postal officials opened the doors and they succeeded in sending hundreds of cards.

The women had started their march to deliver the cards at the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Seyhan regional building. The women shouted slogans praising the YPJ and condemning the murders of women as they marched to the post office and found the doors locked. KJA activist Suzan Kılıç spoke outside the blockaded post office and said, “Fascism is showing itself to us right now. For whatever reason, a decision has come down from postal central administration to close this post office right now. All we want to do is send cards. But even that right is being taken from us." The women's protest eventually succeeded and officials opened the post office doors.

Women across Northern Kurdistan have since escalated their solidarity efforts for women political prisoners in the lead-up to March 8. In Amed, the women of the local grassroots parliament in the neighborhood of Yenişehir co-organized a march to the downtown Ofis post office to send their cards. The women are also organizing a book campaign for the prisoners. The Yenişehir co-mayor Ülkü Baytaş, of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), spoke briefly outside the post office, saying that the eyes of the world will be on Kurdish women this March 8 in the wake of the Rojava revolution and the Kobanê resistance.

Women of Nisêbîn, led by KJA, met at the Gülşilav Women's Information Center with representatives from the DBP and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) to send their cards. After mailing off the cards, the women separated into groups with pipes and drums, making their way through the town's neighborhoods to hand out fliers with the program of the upcoming World March of Women starting in Nisêbîn on March 6.

CEYLAN BAGARIYANUK

In her first interview ever, Ceylan Bağrıyanık, the woman's movement activist who sits on the İmralı Delegation which meets with imprisoned Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan, said that the meetings are a historic step for the women's movement and the peace process.

"As the women's movement, we take the side of women and our basic approach is to bring a healthy and woman-centered perspective to the process of negotiations," Ceylan said. She said the inclusion of the women's movement in the process has been something Abdullah Öcalan has struggled for over the years.

According to UN, peace negotiations in which women take part are 64% more likely to end in a lasting peace, but the Turkish state has long put up borders to the participation of civil society organizations in the meetings with Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned for 16 years on İmralı Island in the Marmara Sea.

It is a historic step that civil society activists like Ceylan have been able to take part in the discussions given that even Abdullah Öcalan's lawyers have been arbitrarily denied access to the island. Last Saturday’s first-ever joint announcement between government representatives and non-state representatives about the process was historic.

Ceylan Bağrıyanık says that the first thing the İmralı Delegation told her when she joined their ranks was "we have worked so hard to get you here." The delegation saw the effort to bring women activists like Ceylan into the negotiations as central to the success of the peace process. "The idea of having a representative from the women's movement was actually an idea that came from Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdish people," Ceylan said. She is a member of the KJA. She reported that the liberation of women will be the first topic on the agenda as negotiations get underway. Ceylan said that for the women's movement it is clear that even if peace is achieved, it will be fragile. This was part of what drove the KJA to seek a seat at the table.

"Of course it's important for a woman to take part in the peace and negotiations process, but I think it's much more important that it's an organized women's movement taking part," she said. The KJA first held long internal debates and then met with other women's organizations about how exactly to push for the goal of women's liberation in Kurdistan and Turkey through participation in negotiations. Now the Women's Liberation Committee will hold a workshop at the end of the month to involve all women in the discussion.

Currently, according to Ceylan, the most urgent priority needed for the peace process to move forward is the discussion of the 10 basic areas of action that the participants announced last Saturday. The 10 points, drafted by Abdullah Öcalan, are a minimum, fundamental declaration of the priorities for democratizing politics, she said. Now a broader conversation on the points needs to get underway.

Ceylan stressed that Abdullah Öcalan sees the peace process as "a process for the democratization of society and politics in Turkey, not just a place where state officials direct limited conversations of conditions."

For many KJA activists it has been a dream to meet with Abdullah Öcalan, according to Ceylan. The PKK leader has written extensively on the centrality of women to the struggle for democracy while in prison, but hasn't been able to meet with the women engaging with his philosophy on the ground. "We were all excited for the meeting—will it be today, will it be tomorrow? That lasted a long time," she said. "When I first met with him it was a historic moment, not just for me but for the entire women's movement. Before we went into the room, I heard him talking with the people from the delegation. When I went in I was so excited, I didn't know what to do. Mr. Öcalan said 'come in' and while we shook hands he said, 'I had to struggle so much to get you here. Bringing you here was harder than changing the state mindset. So it's a historic day.'"

The first topic of discussion in their meeting was the problem of femicide in Turkey. They talked about how to produce free spaces for women to prevent these kinds of massacres, which have come to national and international attention in Turkey since the murder of Özgecan Aslan in Mersin province. "I can say that Mr. Öcalan was really happy to see a representative of the organized women's movement there," said Ceylan.

[John Dolva]

"Society cannot be liberated until women are liberated. Neither the system nor the male mentality can stand in front of us anymore. The issue of women is a universal issue."

We cannot possibly capture all of the events relating to International Women's Day in Rojava, Turkey and North Kurdistan. The number of events, the enthusiasm, the participation and the tremendous steps forward being taken across the region cannot be easily listed or described, and much of the work done to this point will show positive results in the future in any case. Still, we will provide a few items tonight for our US readers to reflect on.

* Turkish soldiers opened fire on a group of young people sitting near the Mitani Cultural Center at the border today. Eighteen-year-old Ahmet Al was shot in the hand by the soldiers and was rushed by his friends to the garden of the cultural center said that soldiers opened fire on them as they sat and talked with one other. Ahmet said that they survived the armed attack only by lying on the ground, adding that he realized later that he had been injured. He was later taken to the Nusaybin state hospital by People's Democratic Party (HDP) leaders.

* The 4th International Action of the World March of Women (WMW) began in the Nusaybin district of Mardin in order to salute the Rojava women’s revolution. The global feminist WMW network today launched the 4th International Action in Kurdistan, dedicating this year’s march to the revolution of Rojava's women.

The WMW was first held in 2000 and is repeated every 5 years. This year women in Nusaybin took responsibility for the action with the aim of protesting borders and in support of the women resisting in Kobanê. Women from all over Kurdistan, Turkey, Europe and the world gathered this morning in Nusaybin in front of Mitanni Culture Center under the slogan “We will be on the march until women are all free!” and “Let's organize and build free life together with the women resisting in Kobanê.” Many women were dressed in traditional Kurdish clothes and performed the Kurdish halay folk dance. Some of the countries represented there are Germany, Serbia, Portugal, Greece, France, Spain, Afghanistan, Argentina, Lebanon, Catalonia, Britain, the Basque regions, Turkey and all four parts of Kurdistan.

The Mitanni Culture Center of the Nusaybin Municipality has been decorated with pictures of women who led the struggle for liberation in Kurdistan and the world , including the three Kurdish women assassinated in Paris, Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şaylemez as well as pictures of Deniz Fırat, Gurbetelli Ersöz, Arin Mirxan, Sibel Bulut, Clara Zetkin, Leyla Qasim, Kader Ortakkaya, Çiçek Botan, Zeynep Kınacı, Sema Yüce, Mirabel Kızkardeşler, Gülnaz Karataş, Rehşan Demirel, Ekin Ceren Doğruak, Delila, Viyan Soran, Gurbet Aydın, Şirin Elemhuyi and Evrim Demir in addition to the Women's Defense Forces (YPJ) of Rojava and Free Women's Congress (KJA) flags as well as yellow, red, green and purple colored flags. The Center is holding forums and discussions tied to the world event.

The women of Nusaybin welcomed other women in their traditional clothes and chanting the slogans “Woman, Life, Freedom” and “Long live the Kobanê resistance”. Women condemned the ISIS gangs in their slogans during the rally. In the meantime, an art exhibit titled “The face of the resisting women” was set in the garden of the Cultural Center and a memory notebook for Sakine Cansız has been made available for women to write down their feelings and thoughts about Sakine. Women also distributed the newspapers Azadiya Welat and Özgür Gündem. A fair introducing traditional Armenian, Kurdish and Arab jewellery was also set up.

Banners written in Kurdish, Turkish, Assyrian and Arabic and WMW posters were hung on the streets of Nusaybin and the streets have taken the color of the women. Following the WMW march, two panels were held at the Cultural Center given as “Democratic Confederalism and the Rojava Revolution led by Women” and “Ecology and the Exploitation of Nature.”

KJA activist Seve Demir moderated the panel on democratic confederalism and the Rojava revolution and Hiva Erabo, chair of the Cizîrê Canton court of justice in Rojava, explained there that in Rojava, Arab, Assyrian, Syriac and Kurdish women take part in all parts of life, reorganizing life according to the model of the commune. KJA Coordination member Melike Karagöz also spoke.

Hiva said that as women of Rojava, they are able to resist thanks to the work and struggles of women like Sara (nom de guerre of Sakine Cansız, the Kurdish militant women slain in Paris) and Arîn Mîrxan (the hero of the Kobanê resistance). Hiva said that women had long been held back in Rojava and the rest of the world and had begun to seek ways out of the chaos and massacres to which they were exposed. Under the Syrian regime, women had no place in the government. Democratic politics was impossible. "Because of the repression of the Syrian regime, Kurds were seeking something different," she said.

Hiva also described the whirlwind process of founding local government in Rojava after the declaration of autonomy in 2011. Efforts were led by the many of the peoples of Rojava whose identities had been denied and othered---and especially by women. She said that the Women's Defense Forces (YPJ) may be a rare model in the world, but that they came out of women's history of struggle. "Our system of organization is grassroots and local. It's a communal way of life. In our communes, men and women find equality," she said. In communal life, women's organization against their own problems is fundamental. "Civil society organizations and women's organizations are actively working on this. And in politics, social life, diplomacy, economy, culture and education, women are everywhere," she said.

Melike Karagöz commented on the system of democratic confederalism being implemented in Rojava by saying, "Democratic confederalism is the closest system to sociality itself. It's a system where people of every color and religion can live." She argued that the nation-state had enslaved society in its previous state, but democratic confederalism involves every segment of society defending itself, its identity and its own way of life---something crucial for women. "Comrade Sara wanted to found women's communes," Melike said, referring to Sakine Cansız, the Kurdish militant activist woman slain in Paris. "Now, every day, women are strengthening Sara's struggle."

Professor Beyza Üstün moderated a panel composed of environmentalists Trude Muyrath, Ulrike Brown, and Zeynep Akıncı of the Mesopotamia Ecology Movement. The co-mayor of Nusaybin, Sara Kaya, gave the opening talk and greeted the thousands of women who have traveled to the villages of Suruç for the upcoming March 8 rally there. Beyza Üstün framed the discussion by raising the topic of the dams that the Turkish state has built across Kurdistan, destroying human and natural life across the region and displacing thousands of mostly Kurdish residents. "The capitalist system closes off our natural water sources in order to protect itself from its own crises," Beyza Üstün explained. "They do it because they're scared of us, but we're not scared of them anymore." She also mentioned the proposed shale gas prospecting in the Northern Kurdish area between Diyarbakır, Silvan and Hozat, a major threat to the people of Kurdistan. Panelists discussed the threat of nuclear power, the destruction of nature and other threats to health, with Trude Muyrath emphasizing the need for women to come together in order for women's revolutions to take place. After the panel, women proposed forming an Ecology Committee of the World March of Women. A film screening followed the panels.

* In the village of Mehser, along the border with Kobanê, thousands of women also gathered to celebrate March 8, International Women's Day. Democratic Society Congress (DTK) co-chair Selma Irmak spoke before the assembled women and said that Kurdish women are writing history through their organized resistance. The village, near Suruç in Urfa province, hosted the region-wide rally today, where KJA activist Ceylan Bağrıyanık read Abdullah Öcalan's March 8 message to Kurdish women in resistance. Suruç co-mayor Zuhal Ekmez also welcomed the women and wished them a happy March 8. Kobanê Canton People's Assembly Co-Chair Ayşe Efendi greeted the people of Northern Kurdistan and thanked them for all their support for Kobanê. Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) MP Mülkiye Birtane also spoke. Please see a posting on this blog put up earlier today about Abdullah Öcalan's message.

After Ceylan read the statement on behalf of Abdullah Öcalan there were several minutes of applause. Selma Irmak then took to the stage and said, "There is no longer any meaning to the artificial borders between Kobanê and Suruç" and she denounced the fact that in the week of March 8, seven femicides have taken place in Turkey so far. "What will we do in the face of this? Arîn Mîrxan showed us the path we need to take, and Kader and Sibel kept it going for us," she said, mentioning women fighters who had died in the liberation struggle.

Selma Irmak said that the women's struggle is a universal struggle and that now the world knows the Kurdish women's name thanks to their heroic resistance. As Kurdish women they will be following Abdullah Öcalan until the end of their lives, she said, and noted, "Society cannot be liberated until women are liberated. Neither the system nor the male mentality can stand in front of us anymore. The issue of women is a universal issue." She said that the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) revolutionaries who self-immolated themselves decades before under the brutal conditions of the Diyarbakır prison had sent their message that "Resistance is life."

The rally ended with musical performances from Mesopotamia Culture Center artist Zelal Gökçe and the group Koma Arîn.

* Thousands of women held a March 8 rally calling for freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed PKK leader whose philosophy emphasizes women's liberation, in the town of İdil (Kurdish name Hezex) today. The town is located in the province of Şırnak and has a population of about 25,000 people. Thousands of women assembled there to send messages greeting the PKK leader and to call for his freedom. The rally featured colorful banners and photographs of women who fell in the struggle for freedom, including Gülnaz Karataş (nom de guerre Berîtan) and the three Kurdish woman militant activists slain in Paris, Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şaylemez.

The rally began with a minute of silence in memory of women who lost their lives in the struggle for freedom. Local women co-chairs from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and Democratic Regions Party (DBP) took the stage to call for freedom for Abdullah Öcalan. They said that Kurdish women will respond to the dominant system in the upcoming June elections. The rally ended with a concert given by many local musical groups.

* Women in Van and Hakkari have been preparing for demonstrations for several weeks. Mass rallies will be held tomorrow in Van and on March 8 in Hakkari. The Congress of Free Women (KJA), a democratic association of women in Kurdistan and Turkey, is organizing the celebrations under the slogan "Let's organize to liberate our lives like the women resisting in Kobanê." Initial mass rallies started in Cizre and Mersin on March 1. Now the two Kurdish provinces in the eastern part of Turkey will host two of the largest KJA-organized celebrations of women's struggle and labor.

The Van rally was originally planned for March 4, but according to Democratic Regions Party (DBP) representative Çimen Altürk, who has been taking part in the preparations, the rally was postponed when 10 martyred PKK fighters' identities were released and local people became engaged in providing aid for their families. A YPG fighter's funeral also came to the region that day. Çimen said that the delay only helped increase excitement for the rally, which Çimen calls "an answer to the state saying that women will be the leaders of the Middle East."

Musicians Nuarin, Özlem Gerçek and the Mesopotamia Culture Center's women's chorus will perform for the crowd and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Van MP Aysel Tuğluk will speak at the rally in Van. In Hakkari the province has marked the holiday by sending cards to women political prisoners and holding meetings to discuss the holiday celebrating women's labor in the cities and villages of the area. Aysel Tuğluk will travel to Hakkari for the rally.

* The Association to Support Women Political Candidates (KA.DER) released its eighth annual report card on gender parity in representation in Turkey today. "Turkey failed again," said the association.The only party achieving 100% equal representation was the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), while women's representation percentages in all other major parliamentary parties remained in the single digits. In the report, called "Male-Female Equality in Representation," it is shown that there has been no change over the last eight years, with women taking very little space in major decision-making bodies, including the parliament, local administration, bureaucracy and municipal government.

In Turkey, 77 women serve as MPs in a chamber made up of 535 MPs. There is only one women among the 26 government ministers. Out of 81 governors, only two are women. Only three metropolitan municipal mayors in the country's 30 big cities are women. There are only a handful of women among the country's undersecretaries, top judicial officials and university rectors.

While the HDP follows a co-chair system in which all positions are shared by one man and one woman, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has no women among their provincial chairs in Turkey's 81 provinces while the liberal/social-democratic Republican People's Party (CHP) has just five and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has one.

The report called for political parties to follow the HDP's example in running equal numbers of male and female candidates in the June 7 elections and said that even when women are elected, they face extreme discrimination from men in politics.

* A delegation of socialist women from Europe arrived in the Suruç district of Urfa yesterday to mark the March 8 International Women’s Day in solidarity with Kobanê. The group delivered medicine and clothing to the Rojava Aid and Solidarity Association and crossed into Kobanê. The delegation left for Nusaybin today to join the World March of Women starting there as part of March 8 activities in Kurdistan.

Speaking on behalf of the delegation of socialist women from Europe, mainly from Germany and France, Sultan Şahin said that they came to Suruç in order to see the solidarity with Kobanê and to be part of it. Sultan Şahin said that they had planned to come to North Kurdistan along with other French women's associations on March 6, but decided to come earlier to visit the villages and the tent cities in Suruç in order to learn from the women of the region and to develop mutual solidarity.

Sultan Şahin said that they will also join the World March of Women in Nusaybin and added that it is most meaningful and valuable that this year’s march has been dedicated to Kobanê, where the resistance of women set an example to the women of the world.

The delegation included Nuran Ağırnaslı, mother of Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) fighter Suphi Nejat Ağırnaslı, who lost his life in the battle in Kobanê, and another delegation of 4 women from Italy today.

* Women in ten cities in North Kurdistan and Turkey took to the streets to cry "On with the resistance!" and to greet the women's revolution in Rojava yesterday.

In Diyarbakır, women from the Confederation of Revolutionary Women's Unions (DİSK) gathered in the reception room of Sümerpark under posters of Kobanê woman martyr Arîn Mîrxan and union leader Zeynep Demir spoke. Women from the Dicle Fırat Culture Center later led a group traditional dance.

Women at Kocaeli University who were recently attacked by campus security forces for organizing March 8 celebrations marched on the rector's building with signs celebrating the heroic resistance of women, including posters of slain university student Özgecan Aslan and Kobanê martyr Arîn Mîrxan. They spoke outside the rector's building against the on-going harassment and rape on campus, the sexist discourse used by professors and the administration's open encouragement of the hatred of women.

The municipalities of Gürpınar and Van organized a trip for 150 women to Axtamar Island, the ancient Armenian island in Lake Van named for the legendary Armenian princess Tamar.

In Erzurum the Women's Studies Club at Atatürk University held a conference on gender roles, gender and sexuality.

In Xırvata, a town in Hakkâri province near Yüksekova, women held a panel with the attendance of Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and Democratic Regions Party (DBP) representatives. Local civil society organizations also attended. The discussions focused on the world women's movement, from Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg to the three Kurdish militant women murdered in Paris, Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şaylemez.

In Bitlis the women's assembly of the Confederation of Public Workers' Unions (KESK) held a press conference to discuss women's centuries-long struggles against capitalism. In Birecik, in Urfa province, women held a film screening. In Hilvan, in the same province, women held a March 8 celebration with music and dancing while the women of Siverek held a panel on women's role in the Rojava revolution. Academic Handan Çağlayan and Hazro co-mayor GülerÖzavcı spoke on the panel. In Gölmarmara, in Manisa, local musicians performed for women, who danced traditional dances and wore their regional clothes.

* Istanbul's Women Lawyers Solidarity held a sit-in in front of a courthouse in Istanbul yesterday calling for "real justice, not male justice." In Turkey, hundreds of murderers and rapists of women are released every year thanks to so-called "good behavior" sentence reductions. In the wake of the rape and murder of Özgecan Aslan, a university student, women across the country have pointed to the state as the chief instigator of violence against women through the legal system's refusal to punish perpetrators of this violence.

"When the statements of women victims of violence are worth next to nothing in court, when the burden of proof falls on women who have to provide extensive documentation and physical proof, almost no precautions are taken against many of the perpetrators of this violence," Selmin Cansu Demir said, speaking on behalf of the lawyers. "The minimum possible sentences and the maximum possible sentence reductions are given to perpetrators for reasons like behaving respectfully to the judge or wearing a suit to court." She also described the questioning of women in court as a traumatizing "honor test" used to discredit women victims and noted that the courts are hostile to female clients and lawyers, who are forced to bring their children into court hearings because courts in Turkey provide no childcare services. "Just like we won't abandon the night, the streets, the squares, we won't abandon the courts either," she said.

The lawyers shouted slogans including "women's murder is state violence," "femicide is political" and the Kurdish slogan "jin, jiyan, azadî" (woman, life freedom).

* According to bianet’s tally, men killed at least 21 women, 1 child and 2 infants in February. Fifty-seven percent of the perpetrators were identified as husbands, ex-husbands, lover or ex-lovers. The figures are based on reports in local and national newspapers and news agencies and so the numbers are probably low. bianet does excellent work in this area and their report shows that male violence left at least 21 women dead; 8 women raped; 7 women to forced into prostitution; 34 women and teenage girls injured; and 11 women and teenage girls sexually harassed. In the first two months of 2015, male violence left 47 women dead, 15 raped, 31 forced to prostitution and 24 sexually harassed.

The statistics for January appear to be much the same as those for February. Male perpetrators ranged in age from 22 to 64 while murdered women ranged in age from 21 to 59. Murder cases were reported in Adana, Ankara, Antalya, Denizli, Diyarbakır, İstanbul, İzmir, Kars, Kırıkkale, Kocaeli, Kütahya, Maraş, Mersin and Muğla. İzmir alone saw five murders of women by men.

In this period rapists ranged in age from 19 to 40 years old while the women who were attacked ranged in age from 12 to 62 years old. Rape cases were reported in Adana, Antalya, Aydın, Eskişehir, Hatay, Kocaeli, Samsun and Niğde. Seven forced prostitution cases were reported in this period in Bursa, Adana, Eskişehir and Erzurum. Adana had 4 of these cases.

In February, men battered 34 women in 18 cities across Turkey. Most of the perpetrators were husbands, ex-husbands, lovers or ex-lovers. Perhaps 66 percent of these cases were battery cases, but 34 percent of these cases lead to deaths. Out of these 34 women, 4 were abducted, 17.6 percent were battered for seeking a divorce and one of these women was seeking an abortion. Her lover assaulted her and killed her mother. The male perpetrators ranged in age from 23 to 47 and the battered women ranged in age from 19 to 76. Battery and assault cases were reported in Adana (6), Aksaray, Antalya, Bolu, Bursa (3), Çankırı, Denizli, Erzurum (2), Eskişehir, Giresun, Hatay, İstanbul (3), İzmir (4), Kocaeli (2), Kütahya, Maraş, Mersin (2), Muğla and Urfa.

In February, 11 sexual harassment were reported across Turkey. Fifty-four percent of the perpetrators were acquaintances. Sexual harassment incidents were reported in Bilecik, Bursa, İstanbul, Konya, Kütahya, Samsun and Zonguldak.

In February, 81 cases of male violence, murder, attempted murder, harassment, sexual violence, rape and battery were reported across 34 provinces across Turkey. The incidents reported were in Marmara (23.4 percent, 19 cases), the Aegean region (21 percent, 17 cases), the Mediterranean region (28.3 percent, 23 cases), the Black Sea region (7.4 percent, 6 cases), Eastern-Anatolia (5 percent, 4 cases), Central Anatolia (11 percent, 9 cases) and South-Eastern Anatolia (2.4 percent, 2 cases).

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JINHA's operative principle of producing news through women's solidarity, rather than competition, is designed to counter a capitalist and patriarchal system that individualizes women. From camerapeople to reporters to bureau chiefs, JINHA's news is produced entirely by women.

We have said many good things on our blog about JINHA Women's News Agency. Now here is an excellent introduction to JINHA by the women who are responsible for the project.

AMED - This March 8, JINHA Women's News Agency, headquartered in Diyarbakır in Northern Kurdistan, will enter its fourth year of producing news by and about women in all four parts of Kurdistan, Turkey and beyond with increased English service. In addition to its daily wire services in Kurdish, Turkish and English, the agency will be opening an Arabic service soon.

JINHA is the only all-women news agency in Kurdistan and one of the few all-women news agencies in the world. A group of women founded JINHA in 2012 to address the under- and misrepresentation of women in media. The agency has bureaus in Diyarbakır, Van, and Istanbul, reporters in Izmir, Batman, Şırnak, Antalya and Siirt, and teams in Rojava and Southern Kurdistan.

JINHA's operative principle of producing news through women's solidarity, rather than competition, is designed to counter a capitalist and patriarchal system that individualizes women. From camerapeople to reporters to bureau chiefs, JINHA's news is produced entirely by women. In their original statement, founding JINHA journalists said they were frustrated by images of women that ranged from the wretched to the monstrous to the pornographic, but consistently reduced women to an objectified position.

Four years later, the misrepresentation of women and especially Kurdish women remains an issue, with Kurdish women appearing widely in the world press due to their role in the Rojava women's revolution and the defense of Kobanê from Daesh (ISIS).

JINHA editor Zehra Doğan, one of the agency's founders, says that they set out to work against the male mentality and media that defines women as "damned and pornographic."

"The male system orchestrated all reactions towards women, until now. Women are defined in the pro-male media as either pornographic subjects, victims or villains," explained Zehra."We are trying to set up our alternative against this. We are working to say 'stop.' We aim to change the language of media."

JINHA reporter Asya Tekin underlines that they founded this agency through the struggle of women across the world—from Virginia Woolf, Rosa Luxemburg and Clara Zetkin to Kurdish women journalists and fighters Gurbetelli Ersöz, Şilan Aras, Sakine Cansız and Deniz Fırat.

"We are producing our news in a context where male media constantly asks, 'what business do you have doing this,'" said Asya. "We will continue to struggle against this mentality."

[John Dolva]

Marching To Celebrate International Women’s Day In Kobanê

Members of the YPJ have marked Women’s Day in Kobanê with a procession to the Martyr Dicle Cemetery where they left flowers on the graves of YPG/YPJ fighters killed in the resistance against ISIS, according to a piece from DIHA and carried in Özgür Gündem. This comes to us from our friends at The Rojava Report. The YPG/YPJ are the People's/Women's Defense Forces, TEV-DEM is the Movement for a Democratic Society and the PKK is the Kurdistan Worker's Party.

Events to commemorate March 8, International Women’s Day, were organized under the leadership of Yekitiya-Star. The march was joined by hundreds of women and started from the Yekitiya-Star building. Women shouted slogans such as “Ji Kobanê heya Şengal’ê em hemû YPJ’ne” (From Kobanê To Sinjar We are All YPJ) and carried flags of the YPJ, YPG, and TEV DEM. Marchers also carried posters of YPJ and YPG fighters killed in the battle against ISIS.

‘The YPJ is Struggling Against the Oppression of Women’

The march continued toward the Martyr Dicle Cemetery located on the Aleppo road. Here Azime Deniz, a YPJ commander, addressed the women. Touching on PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s March 8th message, Deniz said, “In the message he sent us, Leader Apo said that he would not want to live in a city where even one woman was oppressed. We, fighters in the YPJ, are struggling so hat not a single woman remains oppressed, and we too do not want to live in a place where women are oppressed and disrespected."

After Azime spoke, Fatma Oso, an organizer with the Association for the Families of Martyrs (Saziya Malbatên Şehidan) also addressed the crowd, wishing a happy International Women’s Day to all those women present who were walking the path laid down by the martyr Arîn Mîrxan. Following these remarks the women left flowers on the graves of YPG/YPJ fighters who had been killed defending Kobanê.

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Guerrillas And Democracy – Metin Yeğin On The Upcoming PKK Congress

The following article “Gerilla ve demokrasi” was written by Metin Yeğin and appeared in Özgür Gündem. It has been translated into English below. We thank our friends at The Rojava Report for first running this in English.

There is a feeling in the air that the decision which will emerge from the [PKK--Kurdistan Worker's Party] congress to be convened following the call from the Kurdish popular leader Öcalan has long since been determined. What is little known and goes against the widely accepted political theory is that guerrilla movements are democratic, and in fact must be democratic. For this reason the congress will not be some pre-programmed automaton like the caricatured democracy of the world hegemons. All of its decisions will be debated from the very bottom to the very top, constructed through consensus-building and with only the sharpest-edged ones able to move forward. A guerrilla force is an organization which has been formed from volunteers who are continually forced to resist methods which seek to disperse them or force a return to civilian life, and which operate under all forms of state oppression, killings and torture. For this reason, a guerrilla force is compelled to operate through a form of internal democracy in order to act together. This does not mean that every decision is democratic, but that, in general, if decisions are not democratic, a guerrilla force will decreased and fracture. Democracy, which is to say the right to make decisions in common, is a pillar for those like guerrillas who must carry on living their days in the narrow space between life and death. This also does not mean that every democratic decision is the right one. It just means that, right or wrong, the decision was democratic and that’s it.

Of course the effect of a guerrilla leadership, and especially one which has transformed into a popular leadership, is quite great. However, this does not invalidate its democratic quality, for it is society which must implement, experience and anticipate each decision. Is it possible to speak about a decision having already been made by discounting all of this? For example, within the Zapatista communes every girl and boy over the age of 12 has one vote, including Subcomandante Marcos, but the effect of Subcomandante Marcos in these decisions is undebatable. Leaving everything else aside, is it not the same in our daily lives? True democracy is not the polling game of the global hegemons, but the right of free people to make decisions.

At the same time, a guerrilla force is absolutely obligated to be democratic when dealing with those who remain outside of it. A guerrilla force which does not act in accordance with the demands of the people will become marginal. When I spoke to Schafik [Handal], one of the leaders of the guerrillas in El Salvador, he defined it thus: “The Guerrilla’s mountain is the people.” That’s to say, if the people want peace there is nothing else the guerrillas can do. At the same time peace is not victory. It is a point of mutual rapprochement in proportion to the balance of forces. For this reason it is not realistic to expect a "revolution" from a peace agreement. However, even making the state come and "sit at the table" is itself a gain and a new point of departure born from these gains.

Call it either the “vote of hope” which is spreading among the people with the understanding that "everything is over and the guerrillas will lay down their weapons” or a free and just peace! Yet peace, like everything else, will come from organization and genuine democracy…

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A Sunday evening report on International Women's Day in Turkey, Rojava and North Kurdistan

The Kurdish Woman Memorial in Amude

We have been pleased to bring our readers news of International Women's Day from Rojava, Turkey and North Kurdistan this week. As we said in an earlier post, we cannot possibly give full and comprehensive attention to everyone and every event. Now we must also say that not all of the news is good, or even encouraging. The items below show both some great forward steps and illustrate some problems as well.

* The KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council Co-Presidency released a statement to mark International Women's Day, which it described as the day of unity, solidarity and struggle against the five-thousand-year-old male-dominant ruling period, the dominant culture of gender, violence, rape and sexual abuse. Saluting all the women who are enhancing the struggle with the spirits of an organized struggle and rebellion, the KCK said, "We bow respectfully before the memory of all female comrades in the person of Arin Mirkan who have fallen as martyrs putting up an unprecedented and epic resistance against colonialism and ISIS fascism in Kobanê and Sinjar.”

The statement stressed that the freedom of women is the basis of a democratic society, democratic nation and free humanity, and the KCK said that the five-thousand-year-old male-dominant culture and the system of capitalist modernity has created a monstrous animosity against women. “The freedom of humanity in the person of women cannot be talked about unless there takes a place a change in the nation-statist ruling and male-dominant mentality that leaves women without self-defense in both the physical and moral aspects. If humanity is meant to become free, the whole struggle for freedom and democracy must center on the freedom of women,” the KCK said, stressing that in this regard it is the whole humanity in the person of women that are being murdered, raped and sexually abused every day.

The KCK Executive Council Co-Presidency emphasized that the women of Kurdistan have fulfilled their leading role with the resistance they mounted against colonialism and ISIS fascism, noting that the 40-year-old freedom struggle of women has revealed great values. “The Kurdistan revolution, which has entirely progressed as a women's revolution, is achieving victory and a democratic communal life and is being built under the leadership of women today. The resisting and free women have a determining role in the building of the democratic nation and democratic communal life. With the resistance they mounted, the women of Kurdistan manifested and proved the fact that a free future without women is not possible,” the statement reads. The KCK also argued that the freedom ideology of the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan presented to the world women has found meaning with the resistance and struggle of women on a global level. The Executive Council Co-Presidency of the KCK ended their statement by saluting the freedom of women and the world march of women in North Kurdistan.

* In Diyarbakır's Bağlar neighborhood, police attacked and forcefully removed the red, green and yellow headscarves of women who were marching to the World Women's Day rally. Fifty women, members of Bağlar's Fatih Neighborhood Assembly, set out for Diyarbakır's İstasyon Square this morning when police blocked their way. The police called the women's red, yellow and green headscarves (the traditional colors of the Kurdish people) "propaganda for an illegal organization" and attempted to seize them.

The recent reactionary Internal Security Law contains articles forbidding traditional Kurdish clothing on the grounds that it is "propaganda" and this is causing outrage among Kurdish women today as they attempt to attend Women's Day celebrations in their regional clothes. When the women reacted to the attempt to take away their red, green and yellow headscarves, police began to hit the women. Women police pinned down Mekiye Özgün, who has a disk in her hip, and forcefully removed her headscarf. "I didn't give up. I went home and got a new one and I'm going to the square," she said. Mekiye also said that she and the other women were out in the streets to say no to femicide. "And we will be out in the square defending the rights of that woman who brutalized me, too," she added.

Fikriye Tanrıkulu, another woman who was attacked by the police, said, "This is our day. Our children are dying and it's our right to say no to this. And as women, to bear our colors is our most natural right. We want peace, but the state can't even tolerate these colors."

* The Iraqi Kurdistan government denied permission to members of the Ishtar Women's Assembly, a group of women from the Maxmur Refugee Camp, to cross the border to Rojava. The women are being held at the Semalka Border Gate.

A 13-woman delegation from the refugee camp in Maxmur, located in the southern part of Kurdistan, intended to attend the March 8 celebrations in Rojava, but the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) has denied them permission to cross the border. The women, who set out on March 6, had received official permission to cross. No reason has been given for the denial.

According to Bermal Colemerg, a member of the coordination effort for the Ishtar Women's Assembly and municipal co-chair of the Şehit Rüstem Cudi Refugee Camp in Maxmur, "We've been waiting in the cold since yesterday. This is an arbitrary decision. The security at the border gate won't answer our phone calls." Bermal said that the group will have to take further action if this policy is not changed.

The South Kurdistan official responsible, Şewket Berbihari, was not responding to inquiries at last word. His phone has recently been disconnected.

* After women from the Republican People's Party (CHP) blocked People's Democratic Party (HDP) leader Sebahat Tunel from speaking at the March 8 International Women's Day celebrations in Bursa, HDP women abandoned the march and held their own celebration.

The Bursa rally was called by the Bursa Women's Platform and started at the city's Altıparmak Road and headed for Heykel. Peoples' Democratic Party MP and Co-Speaker for the Peoples' Democratic Congress was scheduled to speak at the rally, but women from the CHP blocked her participation. Sebahat is a leading Kurdish woman politician. "This is a racist and discriminatory approach that we do not accept," said HDP women who were present. Women then marched to the HDP regional building and held traditional dances with music.

* Justice and Development Party (AKP) Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu traveled to Mardin to unveil a new action plan to address violence against women, proposing "rage control" and "mercy" as the answers to the quickly-increasing rate of femicide in the country. He opened his Women's Day speech by equating womanhood with motherhood.

"For us every day depends on a conversational environment in the family. For us every day is a day for women, for showing respect for mothers. Every day that women's hands are kissed, every day that women interact with their husbands with pleasant conversation is women's day," the Prime Minister said. He called first of all for "mercy." "Women want to see mercy as well," he said, saying that raising children with principles of mercy would ensure that city governors and police, for example, had these same principles.

The prime minister presented an "Action Plan Against Violence Against Women" which including a proposed electronic monitoring system for those convicted of violence against women. He also proposed a system for rehabilitating perpetrators, saying that the state would undertake an analysis of the profile of perpetrators of "cases that end in death" (as he referred to femicides) in order to develop a "rage control" plan. He did not address the state courts' policy of liberal distribution of sentence reductions for perpetrators or the massive increase in femicides under AKP rule in his remarks. He did, however, remind people that they can contact the AKP's "Women's Guest Houses" (a program for women experiencing domestic violence) via SMS.

* The women's central coordinating body of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) released a March 8 International Women's Day statement calling for the rebellion against femicide and patriarchal violence to widen and denouncing AKP programs designed to push women into the home and exploited labor.

The HDP is the only party in Turkey with a 100% gender parity policy for all positions. The HDP's co-chair system ensures that a man and woman share all Party positions. Women are encouraged to take part in the Party, from small policies to the reduced entrance fee for women political candidates to the role of leading woman politicians like Pervin Buldan, Figen Yüksekdağ and Sebahat Tüncel in the Party.

The HDP statement condemned the fact that on this March 8, violence and murders of women have become nearly naturalized. The sexist legal implementation of the AKP has helped bring the country to this point, the statement said. The statement also mentioned all the changes the AKP had made to attack women, from major changes like restrictions on the right to divorce and the practical restriction of the right to abortion to the discursive attacks of changing of the name of the "Ministry for Women and Families" to the "Family and Social Policies Ministry" and the name of the "Male-Female Equality Committee" to the "Equal Opportunity for Women and Men Committee."

The statement said that Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has aggressively pursued the AKP's "Program for the Protection of the Family and Dynamic Population" and is working to force women into marriage and motherhood and to turn women into a source of cheap and menial labor. "This program, by recognizing women only as mothers, pushes women out of the public sphere and compensated labor except insofar as they are fulfilling 'the role of motherhood.' It embodies attempts to widen flexible and precarious labor for women, justified by a supposed need for birth and motherhood," the statement said.

The statement also noted that the masculinist justice system does nothing to discourage the fact that every day three women are killed in the country by relatives, boyfriends and husbands. "The AKP government has not taken a single concrete step to stop male violence yet it claims to be able to stop violence by confining women in both the public and private spheres," said the statement. "In fact, the AKP has overseen and encouraged marriage at a young age and even for children; a single sectarian education system from primary schools on; and attempts to create 'acceptable women' through family repression. Law enforcement officers are not shy in meting out violence to women in the streets or prisons of this country who express democratic demands...Without any real confrontation with the period in the 1990s when women wearing headscarves saw rights violations and repression, without any justice for (murdered Muslim feminist writer) Konca Kuriş, the AKP's legitimation of pressure on 10-year-old girls to wear headscarves demonstrates an insincere attitude," the statement said.

The statement also touched on a number of AKP members' notoriously blasé anti-woman remarks. "State employees make statements like 'women shouldn't laugh,' 'police should intervene in houses where boys and girls live together,' and 'it's illegitimate for men and women to hold hands if they're not engaged.' Statements like this contribute to social pressure and polarization," the statement said. Still, the resistance in Kobanê has showed the Kurdish women's movement and the feminist and socialist movements in Turkey that another way is possible. HDP women from different political positions, ethnic backgrounds, belief systems and sexual orientations will continue working together to end all nationalist, sexist and conservative repressions that attempted to divide women, said the statement.

As the HDP heads towards the June election, the party is working on overcoming Turkey's extremely high and repressive 10% election threshold, which blocks almost all opposition parties from winning seats in the Parliament. "This time, there must be at least 275 women in Parliament," said the statement. The statement mentioned the HDP's ongoing projects to stop the murders of women and trans people in Turkey and attacks on women and LGBTQ people's bodies, labor and sexuality.
* Through sit-ins and resistance, Urfa women successfully overcame the attacks of police trying to block their March 8 International Women's Day Celebration. Women began to gather at Ali Şellî Park for a rally called by the Urfa Province Women's Platform when police attacked, claiming they were carrying "unlawful signs" and attempted to block the march. Police arrested three people, two of them minors.

Hundreds of women revolted against the arrests, starting a sit-in that closed down Atatürk Boulevard in both directions for half an hour. After their sit-in successfully drove back the police, the women marched past the police barricade to the sound of erbane drums, shouting slogans in praise of the Women's Defense Forces (YPJ), the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) and imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan.

* A number of People's/Women's Defense Forces (YPG/YPJ) fighters have been killed in recent fighting in Kobanê, around Rojava and in South Kurdistan. We have not been able to keep track of all of these martyred women and men even as we honor all of them. We will mention several of them today.

YPJ fighter Zehra Sezgin (code name in Jiyan) was killed in the effort to liberate Kobanê's villages and her funeral procession was met by thousands of people at the border this wekend. Zehra Sezgin lost her life on March 4 in the course of YPG/YPJ efforts to liberate the villages around Kobanê from Daesh/ISIS. Her family and members of MEYA-DER, an organization for solidarity with those lost in the war in Mesopotamia, came to the Mürşitpınar Border Gate to claim her remains from Kobanê canton officials. After the required procedures at the Suruç Public Hospital, thousands of people greeted Zehra with cries of "Martyrs never die!", "Revenge!", "long live the YPG/YPJ resistance!" and "Long live President Apo" and marched with her coffin to Urfa.

Two other YPJ fighters who lost their lives in the operations to liberate Kobanê's countryside, Koçerê Akay and Elif İlbaş, were also brought across the border to Urfa province this weekend.

Koçerê Akay (code name Hêvî Jiyan) and Elif İlbaş (Silav Faraşin) were also killed in Kobanê countryside operations against the occupying Daesh/ISIS gangs. Their coffins were received at the Mürşitpınar Border Gate by their families and members of MEYA-DER. Hundreds of people came to greet the fallen fighters with Kurdish slogans "Martyrs never die!", "Long live the YPG resistance!" and "Long live President Apo!"

President Apo is Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdish liberation movement.

* Women in Qamişlo in Rojava gathered in the thousands to greet their sisters on the other side of the Turkish state's barbed wire yesterday. Women came from the Rojava cities of Dêrik, GirkêLegê, Tirbespî, Qamişlo, Amûde, Sêrekaniyê, TilTemir and Hassaka and headed to the border at Qamişlo to greet the World March of Women. Notable guests included Democratic Union Party (PYD) Co-Chair Asya Abdullah, Cizîre Canton Co-Chair Hediye Yusuf and members of legislative, executive, and justice bodies in Cizîre Canton and elsewhere. Women's organizations and cultural groups were out in force. Kurdish, Arab, Assyrian and Syriac women wore their respective local traditional clothes for the occasion. Signs in Kurdish bore messages including "A society where women are not free is far from truth" and "Let's organize to liberate our lives like the women resisting in Kobanê." "YPJ- Shengal is the revenge of Êzîdî women" declared another sign. This last sign refers to the struggle to liberate Shengal/Sinjar from ISIS and reminds us of the Êzîdî women taken from there by the ISIS gangs.

The event began with a minute of silence for women revolutionary martyrs. Next, Abdullah Öcalan's March 8 greeting, which was first read to women at the Kobanê border vigil near Suruç, was read to the assembled crowd. YPJ Commander Sozdar Dêrik took to the stage and said, "We're not just fighting against the gangs. We're fighting against the patriarchal mindset." She celebrated the women's organization Yekîtiya Star for its successful efforts to reach every house in Rojava.
Welîde Botî called on women to join the struggle as women organized themselves in political, military and social life. Şamîran Şemun congratulated all women on the holiday on behalf of the Union of Assyrian Women. Nadin Asad, of the Arab National Council, said, "There is no difference between Arab, Kurdish and Assyrian women, so all women must organize together and create unity. We will overturn the dominant laws." Zînê Koçber performed music at the rally.

* "Women’s Day" (March 8) was first celebrated in Turkey in 1921, but was halted by the military coup of 1980. After a 4-year hiatus it began to be celebrated again in 1984. Although March 8 has created a certain organization among women in Turkey, this has not been sufficient to reduce the incidence of violence, sexual abuse and rape or exploitation of women’s labor.

On March 8, 1857 in New York 40,000 textile workers struck to demand better working conditions. However, after the police attacked the factory and the workers staged a lock-in, a fire broke out leading to the deaths of 129 workers, most of them women. More than 100,000 attended the funerals of the workers. On August 26-27, 1910 in Copenhagen women of the Socialist International held an International Socialist Women’s Conference during which Clara Zetkin, a leader of the German Social Democratic Party, proposed celebrating March 8 as "World Women’s Day" in memory of the women workers who died on March 8, 1857. The conference passed the proposal unanimously.
From 1908 to 1911 women in the US, led by socialist and working-class women, struck, marched and built a powerful movement for working women's rights and democratic reforms. March 8 was commonly taken then as a date to mark these struggles. In 1911 Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland honored the effort on March 19. The tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and the famous "Bread and Roses" strike in Massachusetts in that period added to the push. Russian women observed their first International Women's Day on the last Sunday in February 1913 as part of a mass revolutionary movement and this built to the point that, on the last Sunday of February in 1917, Russian women struck for "bread and peace," again as part of a mass revolutionary upsurge that removed the Czar and changed history forever. The women began their strike on February 23 on the Julian calendar, or March 8 on the Gregorian calendar. The date was fixed at an International Women’s Conference in Moscow in 1921. Progressive, democratic and revolutionary forces continually mobilized until the March 8 date was accepted internationally. It is a great failure in the US that the day is not marked as a day to demonstrate mass working-class women's militancy.

In Turkey World Working Women’s Day was first celebrated in 1921, as "Women’s Day." In 1975 it began to be celebrated more broadly and in the same year a "Turkey 1975 Women’s Year" congress was held. After the military coup of September 12, 1980, there was no celebration for 4 years. Since 1984 International Women’s Day’ has been celebrated by various organizations.

Despite the celebration of Women’s Day, male violence has reached frightening levels in Turkey, while worldwide thousands of women are murdered by men. According to unofficial figures, 237 women were murdered in Turkey in 2013. In the first ten months of 2014, this figure rose to 255. In January, 2015, twenty women were murdered by their husbands, boyfriends or fiances, while in February, 8 women were the victims of male violence, including Özgecan Aslan.

According to a Council of Europe report issued in 2002, the most common cause of death and serious injury among women between the ages of 16 and 44 was violence. In the US every year around 4 million women are abused by their partners, with 4,000 of these incidents resulting in death.
Women’s labor is also exploited and women generally earn less than men for doing the same work. In Turkey the proportion of men in the work force is 69.5% and the proportion of women is 27.9%. In rural areas the figure is as high as 44.4%, but in urban areas only 15.2%.

[John Dolva]

The Women of Kurdistan. a Vanguard for all peoples

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHb17jRyhl0#t=288

edit add : https links : right click to select open

Edited March 10, 2015 by John Dolva

[John Dolva]

Guerrillas And Democracy – Metin Yeğin On The Upcoming PKK Congress

The following article “Gerilla ve demokrasi” was written by Metin Yeğin and appeared in Özgür Gündem. It has been translated into English below. We thank our friends at The Rojava Report for first running this in English.

There is a feeling in the air that the decision which will emerge from the [PKK--Kurdistan Worker's Party] congress to be convened following the call from the Kurdish popular leader Öcalan has long since been determined. What is little known and goes against the widely accepted political theory is that guerrilla movements are democratic, and in fact must be democratic. For this reason the congress will not be some pre-programmed automaton like the caricatured democracy of the world hegemons. All of its decisions will be debated from the very bottom to the very top, constructed through consensus-building and with only the sharpest-edged ones able to move forward. A guerrilla force is an organization which has been formed from volunteers who are continually forced to resist methods which seek to disperse them or force a return to civilian life, and which operate under all forms of state oppression, killings and torture. For this reason, a guerrilla force is compelled to operate through a form of internal democracy in order to act together. This does not mean that every decision is democratic, but that, in general, if decisions are not democratic, a guerrilla force will decreased and fracture. Democracy, which is to say the right to make decisions in common, is a pillar for those like guerrillas who must carry on living their days in the narrow space between life and death. This also does not mean that every democratic decision is the right one. It just means that, right or wrong, the decision was democratic and that’s it.

Of course the effect of a guerrilla leadership, and especially one which has transformed into a popular leadership, is quite great. However, this does not invalidate its democratic quality, for it is society which must implement, experience and anticipate each decision. Is it possible to speak about a decision having already been made by discounting all of this? For example, within the Zapatista communes every girl and boy over the age of 12 has one vote, including Subcomandante Marcos, but the effect of Subcomandante Marcos in these decisions is undebatable. Leaving everything else aside, is it not the same in our daily lives? True democracy is not the polling game of the global hegemons, but the right of free people to make decisions.

At the same time, a guerrilla force is absolutely obligated to be democratic when dealing with those who remain outside of it. A guerrilla force which does not act in accordance with the demands of the people will become marginal. When I spoke to Schafik [Handal], one of the leaders of the guerrillas in El Salvador, he defined it thus: “The Guerrilla’s mountain is the people.” That’s to say, if the people want peace there is nothing else the guerrillas can do. At the same time peace is not victory. It is a point of mutual rapprochement in proportion to the balance of forces. For this reason it is not realistic to expect a "revolution" from a peace agreement. However, even making the state come and "sit at the table" is itself a gain and a new point of departure born from these gains.

Call it either the “vote of hope” which is spreading among the people with the understanding that "everything is over and the guerrillas will lay down their weapons” or a free and just peace! Yet peace, like everything else, will come from organization and genuine democracy…

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[John Dolva]

Three articles from JINHA on children and minors

We are posting these three articles from JINHA together because we believe that they help to form a contrast between the lived experiences of children affected by Rojava's revolution and how the Turkish authorities treat minors held in the prison system. We thank JINHA for their continuing great work.

RHA – In the village of Miseynter, across the border from Kobanê, lives 12-year-old Beritan Aslantekin. Since Beritan's grandfather's historic domed house was turned into a museum and library for the people of Kobanê forced to leave their homes, she says she sees the future differently.

Since the attacks on Kobanê begin, a parallel resistance has been taking place just across the border from Kobanê: the serxet (north of the border) resistance. Thousands of citizens descended on the small villages tied to the border town of Suruç in order to hold a vigil over the Kobanê resistance, watching the fighting every day through their binoculars in spite of severe repression by Turkish soldiers and even Daesh/ISIS gangs attacking on Turkish soil.

At the same time, communal living in the border villages has enlivened the rural area around Kobanê. Solidarity volunteers founded what may be the region's only library and only museum in Beritan's grandfather's house. Volunteers hope that the Arîn Mîrxan Museum of Martyrs and the Kader Ortakaya Library (both named after famous woman martyrs of the resistance) will remain as a lasting trace of their communal labor long into the future.

Xelil Kılıç's historic domed house was about to collapse when solidarity volunteers moved in to restore it and turn it into a museum, hanging photographs of those who have lost their lives in the fight for freedom.

One of the photographs hanging on the wall belongs to 12-year-old Beritan Aslantekin's uncle, Emin. Emin Aslantekin lost his life with seven others in a clash that broke out 23 years ago in his own home. Beritan says she only ever knew her uncle through photographs.

"It made me happy to see him there next to other comrades like him," said Beritan.

"I'm proud of all the people in the photographs here and of all the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for their people. So many people gave their lives for their own lands, for their friends and for Kobanê. They fought so that people who had to migrate and had their homes occupied by gangs could go back home.

"I want to thank everybody who had the idea and the labor to do this," said Beritan.

KOBANÊ – Kobanê has opened its first primary school since the city center was liberated, with 10 teachers working to educate 250 children of the families returning to the devastated city.

The YPG/YPJ played a leading role in opening the school, which now serves the thousands of Kobanê residents who have started returning to the city since its liberation in January. In a city nearly razed by the Daesh attacks, communal effort and struggle has been the only way for the people of Kobanê to meet their needs—now including the educational needs of children.

The new Şehit Osman Primary School is serving 250 children in eight classrooms with educational materials gathered from the ruins of the city. Children from seven to 10 years of age attend school in the morning, children from 11 to 15 in the afternoon. Classes begin every day with the Kurdish national anthem, "Ey Reqîp." All children have classes on environment, mathematics, physical education, music and Kurdish. The older students also learn Arabic and English.

Ruken Muhammed, one of the school's 10 teachers, says educational institutions face a range of challenges in the wake of the Daesh attacks.

"These children have been badly affected psychologically by the war," she said. "We reopened the school with what resources we have so that these children could live their lives again and could return to school after not being able to have education." She said that resources were limited, particularly educational materials.

"We're waiting for the aid of any institutions, foundations and people so that the children of Kobanê don't have to grow up with the psychology of war, but with the education they should have," said Ruken.

ANTALYA – The Antalya Bar has charged prison administrators with covering up a child sexual violence case in which child prisoner A.N. was beaten by seven other children. The children also attempted to rape A.N. and threatened him with death.

The case, which took place May 24, 2014 in Antalya's L-type prison, has only now come to light. The Antalya Heavy Criminal Court has now begun to see the case of the seven minors, charged with committing bodily harm, sexual abuse and death threats when they locked fellow prisoner A.N. in a dark room.

The Antalya Bar Association says charging the children is insufficient and has submitted charges against prison administrators to the Antalya Chief Prosecutor. They say prison administrators willfully ignored and gave opportunities for the attack to take place against A.N., in a violation of international agreements to which Turkey is a signatory, not to mention Turkish constitutional and criminal law.

The charges point out that evidence of the extent of violence, derogatory insults and attempts at rape in the child prisoners' bunkhouse is plain to see in reports from the L-type prison.

Mentally ill children were found not to be taking their medicine, instead setting it aside to use to incapacitate and attempt rape against other children.

Adult sexual abuse of children was also present in the prison, where the door connecting the children's and adults' bunkhouses was left open. Reports reflect adult prisoners frequently asked child prisoners for "massages" to create an opportunity for rape and sexual abuse. Bathrooms appeared to be a common site for rape in the prison.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Til Hemis-Til Berak are liberated, but the struggle continues

Rojava’s heroic People’s Defense Forces (YPG) General Command said has that the operation launched on February 21 in order to liberate the towns of Til Hemis-Til Berak and surrounding rural areas has been completed successfully as had been planned. The YPG also said that the operation was actively supported by Kurdish, Arabic, Syriac, Assyrian components that make up the Cizîrê Canton population, allied organizations and asayesh (security) forces in coordination with the anti-ISIS international coalition.

The YPG General Command pointed out that all of the ISIS counter attacks have been broken and the threat of ISIS to the region has been largely eliminated. The statement said that Kurdish, Arabic, Syriac and Assyrian peoples fought shoulder-to-shoulder against the ISIS gangs and said; “The instigation that dark forces and powers wanted to create among the region's population has been defeated thanks to the sensitive approaches of the peoples and the resistance of components making up the YPG.” The YPG General Command underlined that with this operation, the YPG has once again proved itself as the defense force of the entire region which involves Arabs, Kurds, Christians, Assyrians and other groups. "The entire region's peoples and components, our Arab brothers in the first place, have actively supported this operation of ours. This active support has at the same time manifested the extent to which the common life project is being embraced," the statement reads.

The YPG evaluated the accomplishment of the operation as the success of peoples living together as equals and emphasized that "At the bottom of the YPG's success lies the embrace and participation of our people and all components in the glorious resistance. No force and attack will be able to weaken the YPG as long as this support continues and all our components keep uniting around the YPG. This operation of ours has ended but our struggle against the ISIS terror will continue in a stronger way from now on." The joint struggle waged by the YPG revealed the mosaic of peoples of the region.

The YPG General Command commemorated the martyrs who played a major role in the accomplishment of this operation. The statement said, "Bagok Serhed (Ashley Kent Johnston) from Australia, Kemal (Konstandinos Erik Scurfield) of Greek origin and from Britain, Commander Baran Amara (Udey El Ubeyd) of Arab origin who has been fighting long in the YPG ranks since his whole family was massacred by ISIS, Dawid Cindo Anter, the commander of Assyrian forces fighting against ISIS attacks in Til Temir, and MLKP (Marxist-Leninist Communist Party) fighter Avaşin Tekoşin Güneş (Ivanna Hoffman) of African origin and from Germany, will be living in our struggle as the leading commanders of our peoples." The YPG again commemorated all of the fallen fighters with respect and gratefulness and the YPG General Command extended their thanks to all the forces and circles that contributed to this achievement. The statement ended by underlining that "We believe that the path taken by the YPG will be the enlightened path of the Democratic Syria Revolution.”

The operation to liberate Til Hemis-Til Berak and surrounding rural areas was launched on February 21 and successfully completed on March 9. According to the YPG balance sheet, an area of 2,940

square kilometers, which has 390 villages and hundreds of hamlets, has been cleansed of ISIS gangs and liberated as a result of the operation. The YPG General Command reported that 245 ISIS fighters were killed during the 17-day operation and 5 ISIS gang members were captured. The Defense Forces also seized a remarkable amount of ammunition and arms belonging to the ISIS gangs, including 1 tank, 3 panzers, 5 Hammer type armored vehicles, 7 pick-up trucks, 3 military trucks, 2 minibuses, 1 ambulance, 2 motorcycles and two vehicles loaded with TNT explosives. They also seized computers, phones, a mobile hospital, a truck of medicine and thousands of rounds of ammunition and a large numbers of arms.

Avaşin Tekoşin Güneş (Ivanna Hoffman)

[John Dolva]

Berkin Elvan is remembered, the police attack the people and police brutality is exposed

Today was the first death anniversary for Berkin Elvan. He was just 14 years old when he was fatally injured by the police and fell into a coma during the Gezi protest or resistance period in the spring and summer of 2013. He was struck by a tear gas canister while he was on the street to buy bread in Istanbul’s working-class Okmeydanı neighborhood on June 16, 2013. He turned 15 while still unconscious but failed to recover from his injuries and died two months after his birthday, on March 11, 2014. Berkin had dropped to 16 kilograms while in a coma before passing away.The police officers responsible for killing him have yet to be prosecuted. The Gezi resistance and the social movements which have grown since then have adopted Berkin as a symbol and have supported his family and the Elvan family has done much to be present with the movement and to remind people of how Berkin died. On the other hand, the authorities have often shown outright hostility to the family and to people protesting over this case. Earlier today we posted some photos from the commemoration demonstrations.

Today Turkish police once more interfered with water canons and gas canisters when people took to the streets in order to protest Berkin's murder and call attention to the case. Many of the students holding remembrance actions in Ankara and Erzurum were detained during the police interventions. Ten people were also taken into custody in Istanbul as opening placard for Berkin.

Students at Tuzluçayır High School and Aegean High School boycotted classes. They marched towards Tuzluçayır Square and blocked traffic before police interfered with water canons. Police beat up the students and people reacted to the police violence. At least 11 people were detained theree.

Groups of DEV-GENÇ (Revolutionary Youth) students at Atatürk University and Erzurum Technical University wanted to hold a remembrance action at the Atatürk University campus but a group of ultra-nationalists ("ulkucu") attacked the students and police intervened and detained the DEV-GENÇ members. Those detained were taken to the Erzurum police headquarters.

Police also barred a group of protesters from the Çekmeköy neighborhood from entering the Okmeydani neighborhood where Berkin lived and used tear gas and water canons against them. A table was set on a street in the neighborhood with a photo of Berkin, carnations, and a loaf of bread, symbolically placed there to remind people of the fact that the teenager was going out to buy bread when he was shot. The mourners observed a minute’s silence before singing a song written for Berkin by people's music group Grup Yorum. A short film prepared by Art Council members was also shown. Police fired water cannons and tears gas to prevent the people from marching to the Feriköy Cemetery where Berkin was laid to rest last year.

In Gezi Park the police intervened against a protest action and seized the signs held by the group and detained 10 people. A group of 10 people unfurled a banner there that read “Berkin is here” and poured red paint over the steps at the park’s entrance. Police immediately intervened and detained the protesters.

A commemoration was also held on a street named after Berkin in in the Yaka neighborhood of İzmir’s Güzelbahçe district. Sadly, a statue of Berkin, which was unveiled on March in a special ceremony there, was attacked early today. The head and face of the bronze statue were damaged as the attackers hit it with stones and tried to remove it.

The Elvan family has demanded 1 million Turkish Liras in compensation from the Interior Ministry on the grounds that the Ministry was at fault for the killing of the 15-year-old. Lawyers for the family delivered a 12-page petition to the Ministry today, demanding 400,000 liras in material damages and 200,000 liras in moral damages to be paid to Elvan’s father and mother. His two sisters have also asked for 400,000 liras in moral damages. The petition stated that the loss of Berkin is not something measurable with money for his family, but compensation was a way of accepting responsibility according to applicable Turkish laws. The petition added that it is more important that the Ministry take responsibility and reveal the names of the murderers than pay money to the family.

The state violated its commitment to not kill and it also eliminated the environment that prevented killings, the lawyers said. They underlined that the state is responsible for the murder of Berkin. Their petition also stated that the parents and siblings of Elvan watched him dying and that the family’s sorrow increased after “propaganda” against them was made by certain authorities. That “propaganda” was an apparent reference to an election rally last year held as Berkin was still struggling to survive during which then-Prime Minister Erdoğan encouraged his supporters to boo Elvan’s family, calling him a “terrorist.”

The lawyers accused the Ministry of protecting Elvan’s murderers as no suspects have yet been put on trial. The administration has not released the names of the police officers involved in the killing, despite knowing their identities, the lawyers claimed today.

Meanwhile, a policeman gave testimony today saying that his superiors attempted to beat a university student in the trunk of a car during the 2013 Gezi Park protests in Eskişehir province.

Mevlüt Saldoğan testified in the case of Tevfik Caner Ertay, a protester who was allegedly beaten and held in the trunk of a car during the Gezi Park protests, denounced his three superiors in court for hitting Ertay. He denounced then-Provincial Police Department Forces deputy head Mustafa Aygün, Riot Police Branch head Halil Kısalar and Intelligence Branch head Mustafa Arık. “During the beating attempt, I told my three superiors something like, ‘He is already wounded, my superiors, why are you dealing with him?’ The man (Ertay) was mumbling to himself while crying in the back of the car,” Saldoğan said.

The three police officials denied the claims of beating Ertay, but Kısalar and Arık admitted that the car had stopped and that they had looked at Ertay, who was being held in the car’s trunk. Aygün said that Ertay had already been beaten before he was put in the car.

Saldoğan was sentenced to 10 years and 10 months in prison in January on charges of injuring and causing the death of Ali İsmail Korkmaz, a university student who was beaten to death during the Gezi protests in Eskişehir and who, like Berkin Elvan, has been adopted by the people as a symbol of the resistance. Saldoğan’s lawyer has appealed the court’s decision and he could be granted probation as early as March 2019, as he had already been held under arrest for 18 months.

Tevfik Caner Ertay is a university student in Eskişehir and has claimed that he was beaten by police officers with iron sticks and locked in the trunk of a car. He said that the car had stopped at some point and that a group of policemen then beat him again. After being driven around the city, he was taken to two different hospitals. Footage from the two hospitals validates the claim that he was taken out of the trunk and into the hospitals. The police department has claimed that the car belonged to one of the department’s bureaus and was given to Saldoğan, who was responsible for the car. Saldoğan has said that he had been informed of the location of a wounded protester, that he had driven to the location, that three police officers there brought Tevfik Caner Ertay out of a house and put him in the back of the car. One of the officers, apparently one of Saldoğan's superiors, ordered him to take Tevfik Caner Ertayy to a hospital and then detain him.

Saldoğan said while they were on their way to the hospital, Aygün, Kısalar and Arık stopped the car, opened the trunk and attempted to hit Ertay, adding that he and a fellow police officer in the car had tried to prevent them from doing this. “I do not know why our managers tried to hit the plaintiff. I did not see our supervisors hit him. There was only an attempt,” he said.

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People are returning to Kobanê despite the risks and dangers

We must comment on the thousands of people returning to Kobanê this week. The people returning had to flee the town in the face of the attacks by the ISIS gangs and have begun to return after its liberation by Rojava's People's/Women's Defense Forces (YPG/YPJ). The number of people returning has been highest on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays when the border gate is open,. The numbers of people returning has increased in recent days, but about 30,000 people have returned to the town so far.

The Mürşitpınar (Kobanê Serxet) border gate on the Turkish side is open for people seeking to return to the Kobanê. According to the figures of the Mala Gel (People’s House), which registers people returning at the border crossing, 2700 people have returned today. Mala Gel helps the people resettle in undamaged parts of the town and in the liberated villages and the asayesh (security) units at the gate work to ensure security. About 80 percent of the town was devastated during the fighting. The returnees are mostly elderly people and children and they seem to be happy and cheerful as they return home despite the threats, major problems and challenging conditions in the town. As more people return, the needs of the people are increasing while the aid reaching Kobanê remains insufficient.

An leader of Mala Gel, Xalit Bozan, has stressed that a corridor for the delivery of aid must urgently be opened to prevent a humanitarian tragedy in the town. The YPG/YPJ led in the liberation of Kobanê after 134 days of historic resistance against the attacks of the ISIS gangs which were launched with aim to occupy the town and we have now seen 179 straight days of fighting in the area. The fighting and a complex political situation has both created a key demand for a humanitarian corridor and made the creation of a corridor difficult. The imperialist powers, including those who take part in the common front effort against ISIS, have remained deaf to the pleas that a corridor be opened.

Now the needs of the returning people are met communally by the people themselves, who are also trying to make the town liveable again despite their limited means. They are rebuilding the damaged parts of their homes in solidarity with one another while also cleaning and securing the town with the municipality staff. Ten general stores, 2 pharmacies and 1 male hairdresser have reopened their businesses so far thanks to the materials gathered from in the ruins of the town, but furniture and other stuff available at workplaces before the ISIS attacks are not sufficient to meet the people's needs.

Mala Gel leader Xalit Bozan said that the war situation still continues in Kobanê and the mines left by the ISIS gangs still need to be cleared in many parts of the town, adding that many people have been killed by exploding mines. Xalit Bozan said that they are trying their best to shelter the people in healthy and secure ways and stressed that the goods in the city are insufficient to meet the needs of the returning citizens. He said that they have shortages and an urgent need for food, clothing, baby formula and diesel. Xalit Bozan called on international organizations, states and agencies to provide aid, which can only be delivered through North Kurdistan as three sides of the town still remain under ISIS occupation. Xalit Bozan also emphasized that a humanitarian corridor must urgently be opened to enable the delivery of aid into Kobanê in order to avoid a humanitarian tragedy in the coming period.

On March 8, International Women's Day, Kobanê Canton People's Assembly Co-chair Ayşe Efendi attended the World March of Women and March 8 activities in Mardin and Nusaybin and then went to Malatya on the invitation of the Malatya Democratic Women's Platform. While she ws there she answered questions from reporters during her visit to the HDP (Peoples' Democratic Party) Malatya office after meeting with women affiliated with the Platform.

In her remarks to the reporters, Ayşe Efendi said that, “Kobanê was a small settlement but the dimension of the battle there was very large, it was a kind of 3rd World War. It was women who were aggrieved the most in the conflict in Kobanê. However, the YPJ mounted a great struggle with which they set an example to the whole world.” She said that cleaning up in the war-torn town was continuing and said that they don't have the power to manage this alone. She called attention to the extent of the disaster in Kobanê and also called for support for the reconstruction of the town. Ayşe Efendi especially called on the young people of Kobanê who were forced to leave their lands due to the war to return, stressing that they need everyone capable of working there.

Ayşe Efendi said that they did yet not want the women and children to return because of the lack of food, water and shelter and problems with infrastructure. "They should stay where they are now. There is ongoing work for a camp building in Kobanê, and we will issue a call for the return of women and children once the camp building is finalized in order to avoid leaving them facing the mentioned problems,” she said.

The Kobanê Canton People's Assembly Co-chair also warned that people returning to the villages will be in danger and risk losing their lives unless the mines laid by the ISIS gangs in the villages and houses are all cleared. She said that they will call for people to return to their villages once this problem is eliminated. She also emphasized the importance of fraternal relations between Turks and Kurds and urged the Turkish state to stop supporting and aiding the ISIS gangs.

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Comrade Avasin felt the pain of oppressed peoples

AMISHLO (DİHA) - The Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) Communist Women Organisation (KKÖ) has issued a statement concerning internationalist fighter Avaşin Tekoşin Güneş (Ivana Hoffmann) who lost her life in Rojava while fighting against the ISIS gangs in the ranks of defense forces.

The women's organization of the MLKP said that Ivana Hoffmann was an internationalist who defined herself as a Yazidi when Yazidi women were massacred, as an Alevi when it was a matter of attacks on the Alevi faith, and as a Kurd when the Kurdish people were under attack.Their message said that Ivana Hoffman took part in the struggle against all kinds of oppression at a young age by feeling the pains of the oppressed people in herself, dedicating her intellectual capacities as well as her never-ending enthusiasm and cheeriness to the purpose of the struggle.

“She decided to fight for the freedom of Rojava as an answer to the call of her party, Kurdish people, women and her own heart. Taking the pain of the Kurdish people as her own, comrade Ivana had a clear purpose; she would first receive military training then take part in the front line of the battle to defend the Rojava Revolution,” said the message of the MLKP Communist Women Organization. The statement said, “A rebellious woman from Togo of the Africa continent, comrade Avaşin always had a gleam of hope in her eyes for a world without borders and classes," adding that she had crossed the borders and came to Rojava to fight for a world without borders and exploitation and believing in internationalist solidarity.

The MLKP Communist Women Organization stressed that Ivana Hoffman, conscious of gender conflict, also fought against the heterosexist approaches of the system that do not even deem the LGBT individuals worthy of the right to life. Ivana's women comrades also stressed that she valued women’s solidarity and sisterhood as a path to women’s liberation and was a young communist woman always attaching importance to building friendships with women.

The KKÖ also said that Ivana was always open to learning new things, seeing it as a joy and proving that each moment of life is itself a learning process. The statement ended by saying that Ivana was carrying a virus of joy which she infected all the people around her with, as well as being a living example of the communist sense of justice.

The body of MLKP fighter Avaşin Tekoşin Güneş will be handed over to her family and friends at the border gate in the Nusaybin district of Mardin. Her family came to Amed yesterday evening and arrived in Mardin this morning with Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) deputy co-chair Fethiye Ok, People's Democratic Party (HDP) leaders, MEYA-DER members and the the parents of Oğuz Saruhan, who also has lost his life in Kobane. Her body will be taken to Mardin Hospital and a ceremony will be held in front of the hospital. Her parents will take Avaşin's body to Ankara and her funeral will be held in Duisburg, Germany on March 14.

Eleven people were detained in İzmir today while commemorating Avaşin Tekoşin Güneş. Activists gathered in İzmir's Alsancak neighborhood to erect a tent in memory of Avaşin Tekoşin Güneş. Police told the group to disperse, saying that the demonstration was unwarranted, before detaining the 11 people and removing the tent and posters. Those detained were released this evening.

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Burak El-Firat Promises To Liberate Jarabulus Amid Call For A Common Struggle

We are reprinting this article from our friends at The Rojava Report because we think that it speaks to developments which positively affect the balance of power in the Middle East and the fightback against ISIS and should also affect the course of the US anti-war and anti-imperialist movements. We thank The Rojava Report for providing this article. We earlier ran a summary of the YPG statement referred to here.

The YPG (Rojava's People's Defense Forces) has released a new statement on its operations in Til Hemis and Til Berak in which it underlines the role played by the united struggle of the Kurdish, Arab, Syrian and Assyrian peoples in the struggle – says a new article in Özgür Gündem. Burkan El Firat has also released a statement in which it declares its intention to the liberate the people of Jarabulus, Minbic, Bab and Sirin from the rule of ISIS.

In a written statement from the YPG General Command it was announced that the operation launched in the Cizîrê Canton (in Rojava) on February 21st to liberate the towns of Til Hemis and Til Berak and the surrounding rural areas had been successfully completed as planned. It went on to speak of how ISIS had suffered a major defeat in the operation and to describe how the Kurdish, Arab, Syrian and Assyrian peoples stood shoulder to shoulder in the fight. Noting how the “YPG had once more shown itself as the defence force of the entire region” it added that the success of the push pointed toward a peace based in a common and equal life for all peoples of the region.

The statement also drew attention to the sacrifices of those fighters who had lost their lives in the course of the operation, reading: “the mosaic of peoples taking part in this common struggle under the leadership of the YPG has once again been clearly demonstrated. Australian Bagok Serhed (Ashley Kent Johnston), the Englishman of Greek Origin Kemal (Konstandinos Erik Scurfield), our Arab commander Baran Amara (Udey El Ubeyd) who for a long time had fought within the ranks of the YPG and whose entire family had been killed by ISIS, Dawid Cindo Anter, one of the commanders of our Assyrian forces who helped lead the operation in Til Temir, and the German of African origin Avaşin Tekoşin Güneş (Ivanna Hoffman) will live as vanguard commanders in the struggle of our peoples.” The statement concluded saying “we believe that the road being taken by the YPG is the bright road of Democratic Syrian Revolution.”

Burkan El-Firat Pledges Liberation To The People

The joint forces of the Burkan El-Firat – formed from the YPG/YPJ, Siwar El-Reqqa, Fecr El-Huriyê, Şems el-Şemal and the El-Ekrad Front – has released a statement in which it calls on people to return to the Kobanê Canton and join in efforts to liberate surrounding areas. The statement said that the Burkan El-Firat would liberate the towns of Jarabulus Minbic, Bab and Sirîn just as it had liberated Kobanê, reading: “We pledge to the people of Jarabulus Minbic, Bab and Sirîn that with the gains we have made as a result of the Kobanê resistance we will continue in our push until the above mentioned places are also liberated.”

The statement also called on local peoples to support in its efforts to drive ISIS from all areas along the Euphrates (Firat) river from which its different parts originate, including Raqqa and Girê Spî (Til Ebyad) as well, reading “we call upon all of those living in the town of Şêxler and Kobanê and everyone who did not take part in earlier operations to immediately join the Burkan El-Firat.”

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[Steven Gaal]

http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/03/12/syria-83-lights-extinguished-after-4-years-crisis

Syria: 83% of Lights Extinguished After 4 Years of Crisis

March 12, 2015

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  Enlarge

  Satellite imagery showing the number of lights visible over Syria in March 2011 and in February 2015. 83% of all the lights in Syria have gone out since the start of the conflict there.

  Image courtesy of #WithSyria

83% (Eighty-three percent) of all the lights in Syria have gone out since the start of the conflict there, a global coalition of humanitarian and human rights organisations has revealed ahead of the fourth anniversary on March 15.

Analysing satellite images, scientists based at Wuhan University in China, in co-operation with the #WithSyria coalition of 130 non-governmental organisations, have shown that the number of lights visible over Syria at night has fallen by 83% since March 2011.

“Four years since this crisis began, Syria’s people have been plunged into the dark: destitute, fearful, and grieving for the friends they have lost and the country they once knew, ” said David Miliband, President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee. “Four years since the crisis began, there is at present very little light in this tunnel. Over two hundred thousand people have been killed and a staggering eleven million have been forced to flee their homes. Syrians deserve much better from the international community - it is past time to show that we have not given up and will work with them to turn the lights back on...”

“Satellite imagery is the most objective source of data showing the devastation of Syria on a national scale”,said Dr Xi Li, lead researcher on the project. “ Taken from 500 miles above the earth, these images help us understand the suffering and fear experienced by ordinary Syrians every day, as their country is destroyed around them. In the worst-affected areas, like Aleppo, a staggering 97% of the lights have gone out. The exceptions are the provinces of Damascus and Quneitra, near the Israeli border, where the decline in light has been 35% and 47% respectively.”

The #WithSyria coalition also today released a hard-hitting film and launched a global petition at withsyria.com that calls on world leaders to ‘turn the lights back on in Syria’ by:

• Prioritising a political solution with human rights at its heart;
• Boosting the humanitarian response both for those inside Syria and refugees, including through increased resettlement ;
• Insisting that all parties put an end to attacks on civilians and stop blocking aid.

#WithSyria video:

Dr Mohamed Ashmawey, CEO of Islamic Relief Worldwide said, “The UK government has shown great leadership, in funding the humanitarian response to the Syria crisis so generously, and encouraging others to do the same. The UK should be at the forefront of the search for a political solution too. While we applaud Britain’s generous aid contribution to the crisis, it is clear that aid alone is not enough. After four years of conflict, more than 3 million Syrians have fled their homes to neighbouring countries, which are struggling to cope with the influx of refugees. We cannot continue to ask of Syria’s neighbours what we are not doing ourselves. The UK can accept more refugees through resettlement and other programmes.”

Dr Zaher Sahoul, President of the Syrian American Medical Society, said: “The rise of terrorist groups crossing borders has spread fear and focused the world’s attention on Syria - but it has distracted governments from the suffering of ordinary Syrians and the abuses committed by all sides in this conflict. Every day Syrian medics, aid workers and teachers are taking enormous risks to help their neighbours and loved ones, while the international community continuously fails to pursue a political solution and an end to the violence and suffering.”

In 2014, the UN Security Council adopted three resolutions that demanded action to secure protection and assistance for civilians in Syria. Since then, thousands of Syrians have been killed, and more people have been displaced or are in need of help than ever before. A new report ’Failing Syria’ released today by Oxfam, Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children and others accuses warring parties and powerful states of failing to achieve what these resolutions set out to do.

Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council and former United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said: “2014 was the darkest year yet in this horrific war. Civilians are not protected as the Security Council promised they would be, their access to relief has not improved and humanitarian funding is declining compared to the needs. It is an outrage how we are failing Syrians.”

Notes to Editors:

The analysis of satellite imagery of Syria was conducted by Dr. Xi Li of the Laboratory for Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing at Wuhan University in China. These figures were updated from Dr Xi’s (2014) study published in the International Journal of Remote Sensing, in which he and Prof Deren Li analysed the effect of the Syrian Crisis on levels of night-time light as a means of evaluating and monitoring the conflict. By comparing the levels of light in March 2011 and February 2014, they found that in all of the provinces, the levels of night-time light had declined sharply following the breakout of the conflict. Indeed, in most provinces, the level of night-time light decreased by more than 60%. The authors also found that the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from each province showed a linear correlation with the level of night-light loss.

The province-by-province percentage decline in light is as follows: Idlib (96%); Al-Hasakah (77%); Al Raqqah (96%); Al Suwayda (80%); Quneitra (47%); Latakia (88%); Aleppo (97%); Hama (87%); Homs (87%); Daraa (74%); Deir ez-Zor (90%); Rif Dimashq (78%); Tartus (87%); Damascus (33%).

The #withSyria coalition is a movement of humanitarian and human rights organisations from around the world, including Save the Children, International Rescue Committee, and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), standing in solidarity with those caught in the conflict. More information, including a new petition and global campaign film: www.withsyria.com.

Edited March 14, 2015 by Steven Gaal

[John Dolva]

Communist women carry out assassination operation for Ivana---A JINHA report

QAMIŞLO–The Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) Communist Women's Organization has assassinated a Daesh /ISIS gang member on behalf of Ivana Hoffman (Avaşîn Têkoşîn Güneş), the internationalist MLKP fighter killed while fighting Daesh/ISIS gangs in Til Temir, in Rojava, on March 7.

The women fighters carried out the assassination operation on a Daesh gang member in Rojava's Cizîre Canton on March 8. The women's organization was founded at a conference on January 3-7, 2015.

"The Daesh gangs, unable to stomach their defeat at Til Hemis and Til Barak, attacked Til Temir. These gangs have killed hundreds of Assyrian men and abducted and murdered hundreds of Assyrian women and we will not let them pass," the women said in a statement. "With this action, we are announcing once more that we will guard the Rojava revolution, whatever the price in life and blood. As MLKP Communist Women's Organization members we promise to grow the Rojava revolution together with our YPJ comrades.

"Just like our comrade AvaşînTêkoşîn Güneş, we will continue to make barricades with our bodies and resist Daesh reactionism, the enemy of humanity and of women. We dedicate our action to Avaşîn TêkoşînGüneş (Ivana Hoffman), who has become immortal through her heroic resistance against the Daesh attack on TilTemir as she crossed continents for the sake of an honorable future for all oppressed people.

"We promise to you, comrade: your ambition for struggle is ours, your will for change is ours, your struggle for women's freedom is ours. We will walk in your footsteps and we won't let your gun fall silent. We will continue to be a nightmare for the femicidal rapist Daesh gangs."

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World March of Women in solidarity with laid-off women workers---a reprt from JINHA

ANTALYA – Yesterday, the World March of Women marched alongside public employees laid off for union activity in the Mediterranean city of Antalya, the march's fifth stop.

The small village of Ahmetler was the first stop in Antalya for the World March of Women, who held an experience-sharing session with local women about their resistance against the construction of a hydroelectric power plant.Local women shared the story of how by setting up tents and blocking the way to the construction site, they were able to successfully stop the construction of the plant.

The women next headed to Cumhuriyet Square to meet with Antalya working women. The Antalya municipal government (run by Turkey's ruling AKP) laid off and transferred women employees to remote areas because they were members of a union. The visitors marched with the women on the municipality, calling on the municipality to re-hire the women.

Tümbel-Sen union member Birgül Yiğit Kabaklı said that the "assignment" procedures in the municipality were really an excuse for exiling workers to break the union. Reassigned workers faced harsher working conditions and hours that were especially hard on working women.

Yasemin Sarar, a woman who has worked at the municipality for 25 years, explained that she leaves the house at 4:30 a.m. to travel for 240 kilometers to the workplace she has been assigned to. She gets home at 9:30 p.m.

"34 of our coworkers are continuing to live in exile like this," said Birgül. The women, she said, had met with mayor Menderes Türel, but with no result. Birgül called for an immediate end to the "assignment" policy at the municipality.

Gülistan Atasoy, of the public workers union KESK, said the AKP mindset had ruled for 12 years through the politics of fear and repression.

"Women will not give permission and will not obey the sultanate of patriarchal men, from Tayyip Erdoğan to Menderes Türel," said Gülistan.

The Antalya program continued with a panel on women and the city.

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"We must organize for life and nature"---JINHA and Filiz Doğan

AMED –Every environmentalist must also be an anti-war activist, says Filiz Doğan, of the Mesopotamia Ecology Assembly. Filiz discussed the devastation wrought by Daesh's (ISIS"s) war on nature and the Kurdish people's history of resistance against hegemonic statist attempts to destroy nature.

"In every region Daesh occupies, they destroy water sources, natural areas, historic sites and museums—because they know that the easiest way to destroy a people is to destroy their lands, nature, their areas where they live," said Filiz. She said that all hegemonic forces aiming to repress a people first do so by taking control of nature.

Filiz said that over the last 30 years, Kurds have taken a leading role among the people in the world who fight against the statist mentality that aims to commodify and control natural resources. The struggle for free, democratic existence has also been one against ecological devastation by the state. However, she said, the biggest challenge for Kurdish environmentalists was increasing awareness of what people could do.

"It's capitalism; it represses people with hunger, so they're constantly rushing, just trying to get by," said Filiz. She said awareness-raising activities were crucial to the struggle.

"This isn't just about protecting a tree, keeping the environment clean or even stopping dams and hydroelectric plants," said Filiz. "It's about securing the ability of people to live in peace."

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Thursday, March 12, 2015

A teenager is on trial in London---for trying to join the fight against ISIS

We are committed to passing on news and views from the democratic, progressive and revolutionary movements in Turkey, North Kurdistan, Rojava and from other struggles and regions connected to these efforts. We take articles and news from our friends and, occasionally, from mainstream Turkish media if the articles show up in more than one news source and seem reliable. Most often we are unable to credit the mainstream sources because articles and photos from these sources show up in many places and cannot be easily identified. We credit our friends with our sidebar recommending particular sites and sources. So far we have had only a few complaints and we have removed the offending posts. Now we are taking an entire article from a mainstream source and posting it in full because of the urgency of the news.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/silhan-ozcelik-disgusting-trial-for-young-woman-who-tried-to-fight-against-isis-10105004.html

Silhan Ozcelik: ‘Disgusting’ trial for young woman who tried to fight against Isis

JONATHAN OWEN

Thursday 12 March 2015

A teenager has appeared in court after allegedly trying to join Kurdish fighters battling Isis in Syria, in the first prosecution of its kind in Britain.

Campaigners condemned the prosecution of Silhan Ozcelik, 18, from London, as “disgraceful and disgusting”, however. Ms Ozcelik’s appearance at Westminster Magistrates’ Court followed her arrested at Stansted Airport in January after returning to Britain on a flight from Germany.

The teenager is accused of travelling to Brussels in October last year in a bid to join the guerrilla army in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party – known as the PKK. The organisation is on the Government’s list of banned terror groups.

Ms Ozcelik is charged with: “Engaging in conduct in preparation for giving effect to an intention to commit acts of terrorism contrary to section 5 (1) (a) of the Terrorism Act 2006.”

She spoke only to confirm her name, age and address during the short hearing, and was remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey next month. Late last year, when it emerged she had gone missing from her London home, her brother Engin said: “We are 100 per cent sure she has gone away to carry out humanitarian and charity work and not to become a fighter against [isis].”

As Ms Ozcelik was led away from the dock yesterday she smiled and appeared to mouth “It’s OK” to her brother, who was in the public gallery. Mark Campbell, a pro-Kurdish rights campaigner, described the case against the teenager as “disgraceful” and said: “I almost have no words for how angry I feel.” He added: “These charges should be dropped immediately and this girl should be released.”

Mr Campbell claimed the prosecution “clearly seems to be linked” to the news last week that former Royal Marine Konstandinos Erik Scurfield, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, was the first Briton to have been killed fighting against Isis in Syria.

"It’s a political thing from the British Government because they are concerned that more British people are expressing support for the Kurds’ fight against Isis, because they don’t want to upset their [fellow] Nato member Turkey,” Mr Campbell said. “That is absolutely disgraceful and disgusting.”

Even if the allegation is true, “her only motivation was to fight Isis”, he added. “What jury is going to convict somebody who has expressed a desire to defeat this modern day fascism?”

While hundreds of Britons are thought to have joined Isis, a growing number are joining the fight against them – mainly within the ranks of Kurdish militia. Up to 50 Britons may have gone to Syria to fight against Isis and President Assad’s regime, according to Dr Afzal Ashraf, a counter-terrorism expert at the Royal United Services Institute.

And amid mounting concern over the growing number of foreign fighters on both sides, former Prime Minister Tony Blair warned yesterday that Western governments have not fully grasped the scale of the threat posed by militant Islamism and need to be prepared for a “long haul” to defeat it.

“We have not yet understood the depth of this problem, and the need for a comprehensive strategy to deal with it,” he said. “It is not just Islamic State in Iraq and Syria... It is happening day in and day out – there are thousands of people losing their lives every few weeks.”

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The women's struggle for freedom

Zeynab Jalaliyan

We are working to improve our coverage of the women’s liberation movements. Here are some reports covering actions over the past several days.

* The Kurdish Women's Movement in Europe (TJKE) has issued a statement calling for mass participation in the commemoration ceremony and march to be held in Duisburg, Germany on Saturday for Ivana Hoffmann, the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) fighter who lost her life in the fight against the ISIS gangs in Til Temir on March 7. We have been posting stories about Ivana on this blog since we learned of her death. Ivana Hoffman’s code name was Avaşin Tekoşin Güneş. She was martyred in an attack by ISIS gangs on the joint emplacements of the MLKP and the People’s/Women’s Defense Forces (YPG-YPJ) in Til Temir at around 3:00 am on March 7.

TJKE has quoted from a letter Ivana left before leaving for Rojava. She said, “I can no longer distinguish the most beautiful colors from each other; I no longer feel the wind of the city on my skin, the singing of the birds increasingly sounds like the call for freedom. I have taken a decision, I lived with these thoughts in my mind for days and nights and today is the day on which I will take this step with my will, which is as strong as the current of the Tigris-Euphrates. I want to be a part of the revolution in Rojava, I want to develop myself; in these 6 months, I want to get to know this fight which unites all oppressed peoples and above all, I want to defend the revolution in Rojava with my life, if necessary."

The TJKE statement stressed that Ivana was an internationalist revolutionary bridge extending from Duisburg city in Germany to Til Temir city in Rojava, adding that she learned much from and greatly contributed to the struggle which unites all the oppressed peoples. The statement stressed that Ivana dedicated her body, her labor, her soul and her existence to that struggle, adding that she took that way with a desire to change the world, fully aware of the prices she would pay in this challenging journey.

The TJKE ended their statement by calling on all the women and the Kurdish people living in North Rhine-Westphalia to participate in the commemoration ceremony and the march to be held in front of Hamborn Amtsgericht in Duisburg at 13:00 on Saturday, March 14.

Ivana’s body has been sent to Amed following a ceremony at the Nusaybin-Qamishlo border where her body was handed over to her family. Hundreds of people accompanied her family, who arrived at the border together with leaders of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP), the Party of Democratic Regions (DBP) and the Mesopotamia Association of Assistance and Solidarity for Families with Lost Relatives (MEYA-DER).

A ceremony was held in Qamislo for Ivana but, her family was arbitrarily kept waiting at the border by Turkish authorities. Her body was later taken by women waiting at the border to Nusaybin where another ceremony was held with mass participation at Newroz square. The police took intense security measures in the town and attempted to prevent the people’s march. The people carried posters of Ivana and imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan as well as the flags of the Women’s Defense Forces (YPJ) and the MLKP.

The ceremony began with one minute of silence for all those who have fallen in the revolution and freedom struggle. MEYA-DER Mardin branch chair Abdullatif Tabar said that the internationalist fighters coming to Rojava to defend it against the barbaric ISIS gangs have waged a historic resistance for humanity.

Nusaybin co-mayor Sara Kaya said in her speech at the ceremony that Ivana will never be forgotten in the women’s liberation struggle, and offered condolences to her family, her comrades and the Kurdish people.

ESP vice chair Fethike Ok said that Ivana had not grown up in Kurdistan but sacrificed her life for Kurdistan and women, pointing out that "she followed her dreams and joined the freedom struggle in Rojava."

Ivana’s friend Senem Dösen also made a short speech at the ceremony, saying that Ivana built a bridge between the world’s peoples, adding, "Our brave woman militant took her part in the revolution with her love for Kurdistan and freedom.”

Following the speeches, a letter Ivana had left for her family before leaving for Kobanê was read out.

* The Kurdistan Human Rights Network has obtained information through reliable sources on four Kurdish women being held in prisons in Iran. The four women are Ghadrieh Ghaderi, Golnaz Ahangkhosh, Razieh Hakimi and Zeynab Jalaliyan, who is under one of the harshest sentences given to imprisoned women in Iran. All four prisoners have been denied the most basic of human rights, including the right to defend themselves.

The real or total number of Kurdish women imprisoned in Iran is unknown, but the number is also unprecedented. The Kurdistan Human Rights Network has been unable to provide details on other Kurdish women who are also imprisoned.

Zeynab Jalaliyan – Xoy (Khoy) Prison

Zeynab Jalaliyan is a political prisoner condemned to life imprisonment. She is 32 years old, comes from the Deim Qeshlaq village in the outskirts of Maku City and has been in prison for 8 years. She was arrested in March of 2008 in the city of Kirmaşan, initially accused of membership of the PJAK (Free Life Party of Kurdistan) and sentenced to execution by the Kirmaşan (Kermanshah) Revolutionary court. This was later overturned and her sentence was reduced to life imprisonment.

In December of 2014, Zeynab was transferred from the Kirmaşan rehabilitation and training center to Xoy prison. She has been taken from specialized rehabilitation clinics in Kirmaşan several times despite ophthalmologist’s diagnosis and reports asking that she be kept in the clinics and prepped for needed eye surgery. However, both the prosecutors and the Kirmaşan court have interrupted her treatment and she has been placed back into prison, causing her eyesight to further deteriorate. Even after Zeynab’s transfer to Xoy Prison, allegedly due to security reasons, officials in Kirmaşan refused to facilitate her treatment. Xoy prison has limited health services so her case is quite serious.

In addition to Zeynab’s deteriorating health issues, two visitors who were introduced to her as journalists visited her in prison for a video interview several weeks ago and it was clear that they were really security personnel. Zeynab refused to participate in the interview and the two men threatened her and warned her against communicating with media and human rights organizations.

Zeynab’s situation is particularly difficult but her visiting conditions have improved at Xoy Prison. After a year of not being able to see her family she was granted permission to have family visitors. Xoy prison is closer to her family’s home than Kirmaşan. Her family is poor and the distance and cost of travel now makes it possible for them to meet. Previous requests to be transferred to a place closer to her family by Zeynab Jalaliyan were denied.

Ghadrieh Ghaderi – Yasuj Prison

Ghadrieh Ghaderi is a Kurdish political prisoner who is held in the female section of Yasuj Central Prison. She is 25 years old and was arrested in June of 2011 in Urmiye and was kept in solidarity confinement for two months following her arrest. During that time she experienced physical and mental torture and this torture was so severe that even after her transfer out of solidarity confinement she was unable to physically move or consume food or water for two weeks. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Urmiye Revolutionary Court, accused of cooperating with the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party). After an appeal of her sentence her term was reduced to 7 years in prison.

Ghadrieh is currently suffering from a severe ear infection and migraines and has difficulty of movement in one of her hands. She has been transferred in and out of the hospital several times in the last three months, even as her health condition deteriorates. Doctors have requested a CT scan but this has not yet been allowed. Reports say that Ghadrieh is forcibly transferred in handcuffs and a chador every time she is taken to hospital and this has caused protests from other women in the prison. After a request for a transfer from Urmiye prison to Yasuj Prison was made to both attorneys in each district, it was agreed by the courts that a transfer would be permitted upon payment of one billion tomans (a currency used in Iran; 1 toman equals 10 Iranian rials and 27,995 rials equal $1.00) to the courts. Ghadrieh’s assurance payment was made in full and a request of transfer was sent to Urmiye prison, but she was kept at Urmiye for a long time before being finally moved to Yasuj Prison.

Razieh Hakimi

Rezieh Hakimi was arrested by the Protection Forces of the Urmiye Revolutionary Guards on August 25, 2014 in one of the villages near Urmiye city with several other Kurdish young people. The Forces who were sent to arrest the young people were given orders to shoot and Razieh was shot and wounded during her arrest. She was transferred to the Taleghani Hospital in Urmiye and was then sent to the Revolutionary Guard’s Ramadan Security base. During her month at the base Razieh was interrogated and accused of membership in PJAK (Free Life Party of Kurdistan). She was later accused of taking part in armed struggle and was transferred to the female section of Urmiye Central Prison.

In the Urmiye central prison Razieh was refused treatment for her bullet wounds even though her health was deteriorating. The wounds have since become infected and the trauma of the wounds continues to this day without treatment. Revolutionary Guard officials now claim that Razieh intended to join PJAK.

Golnaz Ahangkhosh

Golnaz Ahangkhosh was arrested in June of 2014 near Berdereş village on the outskirts of Urmiye city with several other Kurdish people by Revolutionary Guard forces. The Revolutionary Guards had received information regarding the presence of PJAK forces around Berdereş village and surrounded the village in an attempt to capture the PJAK forces. There was a clash and Golnaz Ahangkhosh and several others were arrested in the area and accused of intending to join PJAK. Golnaz was wounded by shrapnel in the fighting.

Golnaz was eventually taken to the security headquarters in Urmiye and interrogated there for 40 days. After that she was transferred to the female section of Urmiye prison and accused of intending to join PJAK and involvement in armed struggle. On January 5, 2015 Golnaz and 15 other Kurdish people awaiting trial were convicted but a sentence is yet to be issued.

* A social media campaign has been launched to urge the Turkish Language Institute (TDK) to remove the definition of “available” with “(woman) who is ready flirt or flirtatious.” People are enraged and are showing their anger on social media, with women saying that the part “(woman)” was sexist. A campaign is up on Change.org for TDK to remove the definition.

“TDK has a sexist attitude by adding the woman in parenthesis. It serves the patriarchy that originates the violence and negative discrimination against women,” the campaign statement says. “Even if we think that this mistake has been made without a purpose, TDK officials have still done an overtly serious mistake.”

* Parents are demanding that a teacher of religion classes at the Halil Rıfat Paşa Middle School in Turkey’s Tokat province be fired after she told some female students that they “deserve rape” for not wearing an Islamic headscarf. “You don’t cover your head anyway, so raping you or doing evil to you is permissible (in Islam),” the female teacher apparently said earlier this week. Mainstream Turkish media has been carrying the story.

The teacher was reportedly angered by classroom noise the mixed elective class on the Quran. The seventh graders were talking to each other instead of listening to the teacher. At some point, the parents say, the teacher told the girls in the class that they should have prayed for Özgecan Aslan, the young woman who was recently raped and murdered and who has been taken as a symbol of the movement against violence against women, instead of going to demonstrations to commemorate her.

The school’s headmaster also reportedly told the parents that the teacher apologized for the comments. Some parents have continued to demand that the teacher be dismissed. “She insulted 13-year-old girls for not wearing a headscarf during a Quran class, which is elective. This teacher cannot lecture my daughter,” a parent told the Doğan News Agency.

Elective classes on the Quran and the life of the Prophet Muhammad have been included in Turkish schools since 2012. The religious education class, on the other hand, is compulsory. A recent European Court of Human Rights ruling stated that high school students in Turkey must be allowed to opt out of the required class to “ensure respect for parents’ convictions” and to guarantee the right to education.

Ivana Hoffmann procession

Ivana Hoffmann

[John Dolva]

The Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) statements on the guerrillas in South Kurdistan and the Halabja Massacre

Mainstream Turkish media is reporting that the KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council Co-Presidency has released a statement regarding the discussions taking place on the withdrawal of guerrilla forces from the battle against ISIS in South Kurdistan. The KCK statement reportedly says that “With the active support of some regional and international forces, the Turkish state in the first place, ISIS fascists perpetrated savage attacks against the existence, freedom and gains of the Kurdish people in Rojava and South Kurdistan, and against the ethnic and faith groups, including Yazidi, Assyrian, Syriac and Turkmen peoples.” The statement adds that the Kurdish movement has not hesitated in sending their guerrilla forces to South Kurdistan to fight against ISIS while the existence and freedom of peoples, faith groups and the Kurdish people has been under threat and danger.

The KCK says that the self-sacrificing fight and resistance of the Kurdish guerrilla and peshmerga forces against the ISIS fascists was regarded by the people as a historic development. The KCK added that "However, it was a quite unfortunate that the guerrilla was made, especially by one party, the subject of meaningless debates on their withdrawal from the battle against ISIS while they mounted an unprecedented resistance in all areas and on all fronts in South Kurdistan, including Sinjar, Maxmur, Jalawla and Kirkuk." The KCK said that following an assessment of this situation, they, as the Kurdish movement, considered it necessary to release a statement on February 8, 2015 to make sure that their real intention be seen---and the public opinion decide on---whether or not they wanted the guerrillas to take place in the battle against ISIS.

The statement emphasized that neither public opinion nor political circles displayed a negative approach to the presence of guerrilla forces from the fight against ISIS in South Kurdistan. "On the contrary, the joint fight of the guerrillas and peshmerga against ISIS was welcomed by the people with excitement and happiness, and seen as a historic new step. The fair reaction and criticism on the subject have revealed already the fact that even the discussion on the withdrawal of guerrilla forces was itself an inadequacy. Not only the guerrillas, but also peshmerga and all forces, are responsible in the face of attacks targeting the freedom and values of our people, regardless of in which part of Kurdistan. This is, above all things, a national duty," the statement says.

The KCK pointed out that the people, many non-governmental organizations and individuals in South Kurdistan criticized the Kurdish movement on its statement about "considering the withdrawal of guerrilla from the fight against ISIS because of the negative and unfortunate approach of a party." The KCK said that the people of South Kurdistan, non-governmental organizations and individuals made statements, staged marches and visited the leaders of Kurdish movement, asking them to not to withdraw the guerrillas but to reinforce them, and argued that he guerrillas couldn't remain limited to one part of Kurdistan and are the defense forces of all four parts of Kurdistan.

"Receiving this approach of the public’s opinion and political circles favorably, we state that it is the guerrilla's historic responsibility towards the people to fight in four parts of Kurdistan as long as the danger and threat targeting the existence, freedom and gains of our people remains, and that we are determined to fulfill this honorable duty of ours deservedly," the statement says.

The KCK Executive Council Co-Presidency also vowed that the guerrillas, acting as the defense forces of the Kurdish people, will not hesitate to be present where there they are needed and will continue fulfilling their duties and responsibilities with a self-sacrificing spirit and determination.

The KCK Executive Council Co-presidency has also issued a statement condemning those who perpetrated the Halabja Massacre of March 16, 1988, saying, “The Kurdish people and our freedom struggle will continue our determined fight against the forces that aim to carry out a genocide like that of Halabja, and realize a free and democratic Kurdistan where such massacres will never again take place.”

The KCK Executive Council Co-presidency has marked the 27th anniversary of the Halabja Massacre and has condemned the forces that perpetrated the massacre of 5,000 Kurds with chemical weapons. This massacre was carried out by the Saddam Hussein regime and demonstrated the merciless policy of the colonialist forces in the region towards the Kurdish people, the KCK said. “Those who remained silent as chemical bombs rained down on the Kurds in Halabja only put the massacre on their agendas a few years later when it suited their political interests. This showed that when it comes to the Kurds, international powers are able to ignore all human values if it suits their interests,” the KCK said.

According to the KCK, the failure to support the Kurdish Mahabad Republic in 1946, the silence over the Dersim Genocide of 1938 and the lack of reaction to the Qamishli massacre ten years ago have played a key role in the Kurds becoming conscious of the policies of regional and international forces. The Kurds have realized that freedom and a democratic life can only be attained through resistance and organization, and have developed their struggle accordingly.

The KCK stressed that the level of awareness, organization and struggle achieved by the Kurds today is able to prevent new Halabjas and means that freedom in all four parts of Kurdistan is closer than ever. The statement continued, “The struggle being waged in Kurdistan has reached a level where it is playing a leading role in ensuring the free and democratic life of all the peoples of the Middle East, not just that of the Kurds. The Kurdish people, and our freedom struggle as a whole, will continue our determined fight against the forces that aim to perpetrate a genocide like that of Halabja, and realize a free and democratic Kurdistan where such massacres will never happen again.”

The Halabja Massacre is being marked by progressive, democratic and revolutionary forces throughout the region with mass demonstrations and statements. Coincidentally, the tomb of Saddam Hussein has been almost completely levelled in fighting near Tikrit. Iraqi forces and Iranian-backed Shia militia are battling to drive ISIS militants from Tikrit. Last year, the local Sunni population said that they had removed Saddam's body and taken it to an unknown location. The capture of the tomb came as fighting intensified north and south of Tikrit yesterday as Iraqi security forces vowed to reach the city center within 48 hours. Footage shows the mausoleum reduced to rubble.

It is especially interesting to us that the KCK has put the Halabja Massacre in a certain historical context going back to the Mahabad Republic in 1946. We believe that this is the best way to understand the broader outlines of the present-day Kurdish freedom movement. The movement gained its practical experiences through the events cited in the KCK statement.

On the other hand, the savagery committed by the Ba'ath regime in Iraq led by Saddam Hussein has not been forgotten by the Kurdish people. It has left a black mark on the century for them. The massacre began with a chemical gas attack and left over 5000 people dead, thousands disabled and forced thousands of others to migration. Survivors of the attack told ANF news service about the massacre which came with a smell of apple.

Mahsume Gul told ANF, "Let me tell you about it if I can. But, could it be understood by those who didn't live it? A smell covered all over everywhere. We were shocked and didn't know what to do. I was seeing dead bodies everywhere I looked. I run to my brother's house. There was no voice inside. Ten people had died all of a sudden. I went out to the streets which were full with corpses and people fighting for their life. I was also breathing very difficultly. I still can't stop thinking how I managed to survive it."

The KCK statement on the guerrilla presence in South Kurdistan is perhaps more complicated. We have posted a great deal about this issue on this blog. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and circles in the Kurdistan Democratic Party raised certain objections to the presence of the guerrilla forces in the region, and particularly so after people in Shengal/Sinjar expressed public criticism and accused some peshmerga of abandoning them in the face of ISIS attacks. It seemed that as this criticism grew the people developed deeper relations with the guerrillas and began to develop a vision of how self-determination and democratic confederalism could work for them. This, in turn, is at odds with the system in place under the KRG and an open rupture seemed possible at one point. Such a division would not help the liberation movement at this stage. The KCK position is the principled position but the larger issue is not yet resolved.

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Sunday, March 15, 2015

Two demonstrations proclaim women, life and freedom

Drums and pipes met the incoming World March of Women, who brought their solidarity to the environmental struggle in the Aegean city of Muğla yesterday.

"We are drawing the map of Europe without borders, the way it should be," said Yıldız Temurturan of the journey to the march's sixth stop, in Muğla. After spending time in Izmir, the women will continue to Greece in the coming days.

The Muğla delegation meeting the woman crowned them with olive branches, a symbol of the Aegean region and of peace. The woman walked nearly the entire length of the small 65,000-person city, shouting slogans against the exploitation of nature—one of the main themes of the march's international action this year. In spite of the rain, women maintained a rebellious and joyous atmosphere.

At the end of the march, the women sent their greetings to the resisting women in Kobanê from historic Saburhane Square. They fried the Izmir region's traditional fried lokma doughnuts in the square, an activity typically done at ceremonies—in this case, a ceremony to remember women lost to femicide.

At Sınırsızlık Square, the women hung a plaque on the monument to Saynur Gelendost, a symbol of the environmentalist struggle in Turkey. Saynur held a hunger strike in 1994 at the square to protest the construction of the Gökova thermal reactor.

The women also held a forum with an open lectern on the subject of ways to escalate the environmental struggle. They spent the night in Didim were in Izmir today for a rally at Konak Eski Sümerbank.

Thousands of people also took to the streets of Van in a spontaneous reaction to attempted an femicide yesterday afternoon. A man shot a 27-year-old woman on central Sanat Street in downtown Van. Within minutes, thousands of citizens flooded the streets, attempting to protect the woman and to disarm the attacker. Riot police attempted to protect the attacker by taking over a workplace to hide him and attacking the gathering crowd.

The Justice and Development Party (AKP), Turkey's reactionary ruling party, stands widely accused of emboldening femicides in Turkey through sexist discourse and policies that reduce sentences for perpetrators of violence against women. According to reports from the DIHA news service, the man, Nazım Al, attacked his wife because she had opened a divorce case against him.

The crowd began to chant the Kurdish slogan "jin, jiyan, azadî" (woman, life, freedom) and a slogan calling for punishment for those who attack women, also widespread during the recent Özgecan uprisings. Özgecan Aslan was brutally assaulted and murdered and this sparked mass outrage, or an uprising, that is continuing.

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[note any apparent signs of splits in kurdistan, particularly anywhere the us tries to insert itself. in time it will be important to look back on that]

[John Dolva]

Rojava's Revolution awoke all oppressed peoples

Democratic Society Congress (DTK) Co-chair Selma Irmak spoke at the Newroz celebration yesterday on the Suruç-Kobanê border, which was attended by hundreds of thousands of people, replying to Turkish President Erdoğan’s comment that: "there is no Kurdish question," saying no one could deny their language and identity. She said, "First we will free our leader, then the whole of our region.”

A video message was sent from Kobanê by the YPJ (Rojava's People's Defense Forces) which was greeted with the slogan "Long live the resistance of the YPJ/YPG!"

‘Oppressed people are again rising up’

People's Democratic Congress (HDK) Co-spokesperson and People's Democratic arty (HDP) Mersin MP Ertuğrul Kürkçü said that the Rojava Revolution has awoken all oppressed peoples and that the freedom struggle of the Kurds had affected everyone. He also mentioned the elections of June 7, saying they would exceed the threshold and transform Turkey.

Muslim: This success is everyone’s

Kobanê Canton Prime Minister Enver Muslim emphasized that the struggle waged by the YPG/YPJ (People's/Women's Defense Forces) fighters in Kobanê had been one for humanity, and that support had come from all over the world. He said that the system they had established in Rojava was the most suitable one for Syria.

Following Enver Muslim, HDP Co-president Figen Yüksekdağ began her speech by celebrating the victory in Kobanê. She added that the borders no longer have any validity and that the resistance in Kobanê will spread all over the world.

'The peoples of Turkey will not accept your charity’

Figen Yüksekdağ recalled Erdoğan's words regarding the victory in Kobanê when he said, "What victory, why are you celebrating? Kobanê has been demolished.” She emphasized that everyone had a duty to help in the reconstruction of the city. The HDP Co-chair said, "This people are not dependent on your charity, Mr President. There is not long to wait. We will wage a struggle and succeed on June 8.”

At the celebration there was a virtual army of reporters. After the speeches, the Mesopotamia Cultural Centre choir enthused the crowds by singing revolutionary songs in Kurdish and Turkish.

[John Dolva]

JINHA

AMED – Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party), has released a historic Newroz message calling for an era of peace and democratic change to overcome the violence of the nation-state form in the Middle East.

The crowd shouted as one, "long live the leader Öcalan," in the moments of silence before the message was read. Members of the delegation from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) read the message before the crowd of several million—MP Pervin Buldan in Kurdish, MP Sırrı Süreyya Önder in Turkish.

Sırrı Sürreyya Önder brought greetings on behalf of the leader of the PKK, seen by many as the leader of the Kurdish people.

The full text of the message is as follows:

"To all our people:

This Newroz, I greet all the people and all of our friends standing for peace, equality, freedom and democracy.

In our region and our country, the crisis brought by the neoliberal politics of imperialist capitalism and its despotic local collaborators has been extremely devastating. In the context of this crisis, our peoples and cultures, with all their ethnic and religious differences, have consumed themselves in senseless and pitiless wars. With this scene before us, neither our historical nor modern values, neither our consciences nor our political orientations can remain silent or indifferent. Rather, our religious, political and moral responsibilities require that there be an urgent intervention.

Today, the struggle we have waged for the brotherhood of peoples and for peace has reached a historic threshold. Although our forty-year struggle, with all its anguish, was not for nothing, it has reached an unsustainable stage. Our history and our people demand a democratic solution and a peace that suits the spirit of the age. On this basis, on the basis of the ten-point declaration officially announced by all of us at Dolmabahçe Palace, starting a new process is the responsibility facing us all.

The PKK has waged a nearly 40-year armed struggle against the Turkish Republic. With the reaching of an agreement on the declaration's principles, I see it as necessary and historic to end this struggle and to hold a congress to clarify new political and social strategy and tactics appropriate to the new period. I hope that, as soon as possible, we will see a Truth and Reconciliation committee formed by Parliament members and members of the Monitoring Delegation, and that we will see this congress take place successfully. Our congress begins a new period. In this new period, we will be entering a process of living in peace and sisterhood and brotherhood, founded on a free and equal constitutional citizenship, democratic identity and a democratic society within the Turkish republic. This is how we transcend the 90-year-history of the Republic, with all its clashes. This is how we march toward a future woven based on the criteria of real peace and universal democracy. To greet such a period in your presence truly befits the real history of Newroz. And yet the phenomena that are true for our country and our people are also valid for all of this region of ours, with all its sacredness. The reality of the last 200 years of capitalist imperialism, and especially the last century, is this: to turn ethnic and religious identities acrimoniously inwards based on nation-state nationalism, to make them enemies of one another—that is, to use a divide-and-conquer strategy to pitilessly drive your existence forward until the present day!

We must know that ISIS is the latest tyranny to emerge elicited by the imperialist forces, who haven't given up their ambitions on the Middle East. This organization, which strains the definition even of "barbarism," has executed cruel massacres, sparing neither women nor children, against all the peoples and belief groups of the region—especially the Kurdish, Turkmen, Arab, Ezidi, Assyrian and Syriac peoples.

It is now time to close this cruel and destructive history and move on to a peace, fraternity and democracy fitting our real past. My beliefs and what I know to be true are what compel me to overcome nation-states, born of violent, all-consuming, destructive nationalism, with democratic politics and open democratic identities, in order to reach a community. I call on nation-states to realize within themselves a new form of democratic politics and democratic community and to build amongst themselves a new shared, democratic home in the Middle East.

I also call on women and youth, who form the overwhelming majority of those beating their wings for freedom in the crowd assembled today, to take an active and successful role in the struggle for freedom and equality before us in the areas of economy, social life, politics and security. Furthermore, I greet the resistance and the victory of Kobani, which has great meaning for our region and for the international community. I greet the “Soul of Eşme”* the new and historic symbol that has developed between our peoples based on this resistance.

In brief, all the things I have ascertained above are an important call to our society: for the revision, restoration and reconstruction of our history and of our present moment.

Again, I am greeting this historic Newroz before all humanity, with the wish that it be an auspicious occasion.

Long live Newroz, long live the fraternity of the people…."

[John Dolva]

JINHA

AMED – Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party), has released a historic Newroz message calling for an era of peace and democratic change to overcome the violence of the nation-state form in the Middle East.

The crowd shouted as one, "long live the leader Öcalan," in the moments of silence before the message was read. Members of the delegation from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) read the message before the crowd of several million—MP Pervin Buldan in Kurdish, MP Sırrı Süreyya Önder in Turkish.

Sırrı Sürreyya Önder brought greetings on behalf of the leader of the PKK, seen by many as the leader of the Kurdish people.

The full text of the message is as follows:

"To all our people:

This Newroz, I greet all the people and all of our friends standing for peace, equality, freedom and democracy.

In our region and our country, the crisis brought by the neoliberal politics of imperialist capitalism and its despotic local collaborators has been extremely devastating. In the context of this crisis, our peoples and cultures, with all their ethnic and religious differences, have consumed themselves in senseless and pitiless wars. With this scene before us, neither our historical nor modern values, neither our consciences nor our political orientations can remain silent or indifferent. Rather, our religious, political and moral responsibilities require that there be an urgent intervention.

Today, the struggle we have waged for the brotherhood of peoples and for peace has reached a historic threshold. Although our forty-year struggle, with all its anguish, was not for nothing, it has reached an unsustainable stage. Our history and our people demand a democratic solution and a peace that suits the spirit of the age. On this basis, on the basis of the ten-point declaration officially announced by all of us at Dolmabahçe Palace, starting a new process is the responsibility facing us all.

The PKK has waged a nearly 40-year armed struggle against the Turkish Republic. With the reaching of an agreement on the declaration's principles, I see it as necessary and historic to end this struggle and to hold a congress to clarify new political and social strategy and tactics appropriate to the new period. I hope that, as soon as possible, we will see a Truth and Reconciliation committee formed by Parliament members and members of the Monitoring Delegation, and that we will see this congress take place successfully. Our congress begins a new period. In this new period, we will be entering a process of living in peace and sisterhood and brotherhood, founded on a free and equal constitutional citizenship, democratic identity and a democratic society within the Turkish republic. This is how we transcend the 90-year-history of the Republic, with all its clashes. This is how we march toward a future woven based on the criteria of real peace and universal democracy. To greet such a period in your presence truly befits the real history of Newroz. And yet the phenomena that are true for our country and our people are also valid for all of this region of ours, with all its sacredness. The reality of the last 200 years of capitalist imperialism, and especially the last century, is this: to turn ethnic and religious identities acrimoniously inwards based on nation-state nationalism, to make them enemies of one another—that is, to use a divide-and-conquer strategy to pitilessly drive your existence forward until the present day!

We must know that ISIS is the latest tyranny to emerge elicited by the imperialist forces, who haven't given up their ambitions on the Middle East. This organization, which strains the definition even of "barbarism," has executed cruel massacres, sparing neither women nor children, against all the peoples and belief groups of the region—especially the Kurdish, Turkmen, Arab, Ezidi, Assyrian and Syriac peoples.

It is now time to close this cruel and destructive history and move on to a peace, fraternity and democracy fitting our real past. My beliefs and what I know to be true are what compel me to overcome nation-states, born of violent, all-consuming, destructive nationalism, with democratic politics and open democratic identities, in order to reach a community. I call on nation-states to realize within themselves a new form of democratic politics and democratic community and to build amongst themselves a new shared, democratic home in the Middle East.

I also call on women and youth, who form the overwhelming majority of those beating their wings for freedom in the crowd assembled today, to take an active and successful role in the struggle for freedom and equality before us in the areas of economy, social life, politics and security. Furthermore, I greet the resistance and the victory of Kobani, which has great meaning for our region and for the international community. I greet the “Soul of Eşme”* the new and historic symbol that has developed between our peoples based on this resistance.

In brief, all the things I have ascertained above are an important call to our society: for the revision, restoration and reconstruction of our history and of our present moment.

Again, I am greeting this historic Newroz before all humanity, with the wish that it be an auspicious occasion.

Long live Newroz, long live the fraternity of the people…."

*A site of resistance in Kobanê.

[John Dolva]

A report from JINHA on the women's movement in Kobanê

KOBANÊ –The women's movement in Kobanê has resumed grassroots work organizing neighborhood assemblies. Women's organization Yekîtiya Star held a meeting yesterday to resume the grassroots organizing work.

When Daesh/ISIS attacked Kobanê intensely starting in September, entire neighborhoods emptied out as civilians were forced to abandon the city. As tens of thousands of Kobanê citizens have begun returning since the city's January liberation, Yekitîya Star members say they want to rebuild the women's movement in their neighborhoods.

"The neighborhood assemblies that Yekîtiya Star had formed in Kobanê were a historic effort to solve the basic problems of women on every street in the city," explained Ruken Ahmed, a coordinating member of Yekîtiya Star. "But Daesh's attacks on the city stopped most of our operations."

She says that now hundreds of everyday women are returning to the city, many of them veterans of the 40-year women's movement in the region, and that they have been working to restart the assemblies.

"Now it's imperative that we come back with stronger work than ever," said Ruken. She says women are beginning to hold elections for leadership in their assemblies and restarting work on the women's academy project that was gaining speed when Daesh attacked.

"Maybe before it was a question of working against backwards forces within society, but now it's a question of bringing the sacrificial spirit of Arîn Mîrxan into a project of creating a free women," said Ruken.

"Now women's organizations are coming from around the world and telling us, 'we work to intervene at the point of all forms of violence against women, but you're doing the opposite. You're struggling to totally remove the backwards attitude towards women and the danger against them. You're stopping violence from happening at all.'"

Ruken says that in the wake of women's defense of Kobanê, this project is more urgent than ever.

The women started their first meeting with a minute of silence to honor the martyrs.

Video

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1572715472991888&set=vb.1557464794516956&type=1

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1572715472991888&set=vb.1557464794516956&type=1