PAJK Calls On Women To Support Kobanê

(ANF/BEHDİNAN) Emine Erciyes, a member of the coordinating body of the Free Woman Party of Kurdistan (PAJK), has issued a call to all women to support the Rojava Revolution and increase their resistance in the face of ongoing against attacks against Kobanê, one of the three Democratic Autonomous Cantons of Rojava.

Kobanê has been under attack by forces from the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) for over three weeks. In her statement Erciyes noted that “hegemonic powers with the ISIS at the lead are increasing their attacks on the gains of the Rojava Revolution. Forces which earlier claimed to be fighting against the regime are now attacking the Rojava cantons. Therefore the principal target of these powers has passed from the regime to the democratic autonomy and liberatory system of the Kurdish people. Therefore these forces have no problem with the system, but with freedom and those peoples who want to create a free will.”

Nothing To Do With Islam!

Erciyes also made it clear the attacks had nothing to do with Islam, writing “the people they are attacking are a Muslim people. Hegemonic powers which are making use of Islam to serve their desire for power have released these forces like a virus onto the people. These are forces which feed on the blood of the peoples. It has been revealed time and again how these forces have been supported and fed by hegemonic powers. They are receiving material support and training from foreign states. The goal of these gangs is the goal of the hegemonic powers. The goal of these hegemonic powers is to break the will of the peoples which is now taking concrete form. The democratic system which the Kurdish people have built in Rojava shows that peoples can live without a state and without higher authorities and can protect their existence. Now all the people of the Middle East, the Kurds and the peoples of the world are believing in the reality that they can live without higher authorities and without a state. For that reason the democratic system of the Kurdish people in Rojava have drawn such a large response from the hegemonic powers.

Turkey Is Fanning The Flames Of War

Erciyes emphasized the role that Turkey was playing in the attacks, saying “there is a process of dialog between our leadership and the state in order to provide for a democratic and emancipatory solution to the Kurdish issue. Our leadership announced in this years Newroz message that this process must be formed along legal foundations and evolve into a negotiation process. The free will and spirit which emerges on Newroz is now in a position, together with the election results, to be taken as a interlocutor. On Newroz the Kurdish people gave two messages: the first, the provision of freedom for our leadership; the second, that it had taken ownership of the Rojava Revolution. The view on Newroz actually showed to everyone the national unity of the Kurdish people. The reason Turkey is supporting this war is to break up the national unity of the Kurds. If the Turkish state will recognize the will of the Kurdish people, it is also in the position of recognizing the position of the Kurdish people in the other parts of Kurdistan. Turkey has been the power which has been continuously fanning the flames of war in Rojava. Now it needs to stop these dirty war politics.”

The KDP Fears Democracy

Erciyes also noted how the creation of a democratic system and a free will has drawn the attention of the KDP and pointed out how the only power in South Kurdistan that has not recognized the cantons is the KDP. She went on to explain how the principal fear of the KDP is that the people under its administration might tomorrow demand a democratic and free system and that this would be the end of the KDP’s power. She spoke of how the KDP has remained silent in the face of attacks on the cantons, saying “those Kurds who are working in cooperation with the system and above all the Turkish state should know this; the Kurds have now created a free will, they have formed their own self-defense, they have developed their own system in the form of the canton. No other orientation will change this, break it up or destroy it. The self-defense of the Kurdish people is strong.”

Women Must Join The Resistance

She also addressed the subject of women, emphasising how the Rojava Revolution has been a Women’s revolution and called on Kurdish women and all women of the world to support it, saying “From now on women will be the owners of the Rojava Revolution. In particular all women should join the resistance to the attacks against the Kobanê canton and take ownership of this resistance. This is the honor of being a woman. All the Kurdish people and youth in the four parts of Kurdistan should take an active part in the ranks of the Rojava Revolution. In particular the one hope of women, their one salvation is in the ranks of the revolution, the ranks of freedom. Rojava has made this concrete. As a nation women all over the world are subject to the same attacks and within this totality they have created a common spirit of resistance. Women pay the heaviest costs of war. Women need to need to unite around the axis of the revolution, project the gains of the revolution and take stronger ownership of the cantons. Everyone certainly has something they can do for freedom. Those who have enough strength join the YPG and the YPJ and increase the fight. But in addition in the meaning of helping to found the system and to strengthen it, and to give material and moral support I am calling on all women and all democratic currents to take ownership of the Revolution.”

Forces of Freedom and Democracy Must Support the Resistance

Erciyes also called on the other peoples of Rojava to continue to help in the process, saying “the Kurdish people were at the vanguard of this revolutionary process, and the formation of this democratic, free and autonomous system. But the Kurdish people did not found the cantons alone. All the peoples living in Rojava founded this system together, and its government and its projects formed around this axis. For that reason not only the Kurdish people, but all those people living together with the Kurds and building this system together must take ownership and resist against the attacks now being carried out against the Kobanê canton. All peoples on the sides of freedom and democracy should respond to the attacks on the Rojava Revolution and the Kobanê canton and show sensitivity.”