The Revolutionary Communist Movement of Northeast Syria (TKŞ) issued a statement on February 16 declaring that the Kurdish people will never surrender to HTS. They analyze the attacks on the Rojava Revolution and call for its defense.
The lands of Rojava are our home, and we will protect them with all our being.
The eyes of the entire world are on the Middle East. Imperialist powers and colonising regional states are pursuing a strategy of subduing and liquidating armed resistance forces that are changing borders in the Middle East, defending their lands and peoples. War plans of varying intensity are being carried out in the territories of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran, especially in Kurdistan and Palestine.
The lands of Syria have once again been abandoned to war and destruction following 14 years of civil war. The colonialist Turkish state, together with the jihadist salafist HTS and Daesh gangs, attempted to implement a genocidal plan to annihilate our Rojava women’s revolution. Imperialist powers, led by the United States, approved this attack on the Kurdish people. All international institutions turned a blind eye to what was happening.
Starting from Sheikh Maqsoud, Deir Hafer, Tabqa, Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor regions were targeted by successive attacks and occupied. HTS gangs incited Arab nationalism and carried out hostilities, lies and propaganda against the Kurdish people. Certain Arab tribes funded by Saudi Arabia turned their faces towards the gangs in Damascus. They collaborated with gang attacks against the women’s revolution. Attacks were organised against the institutions of the Autonomous Administration in provinces and districts with large Arab populations. The occupiers targeted the destruction of the Kurdish-Arab alliance that forms the basis of the North and East Syria Autonomous Administration and they stoked a reactionary war between the peoples. Kobanê was placed under intense siege. A war front was established in the Cizîrê region and attacks spread over a wide area. The occupation attacks continued for days. Our entire people, especially women and youth, displayed determined resistance against the gang attacks and did not allow the gangs to enter the cities of Rojava. The slogan “Either an equal and free life, or an honourable martyrdom” guided our resistance.
During the gang attacks, hundreds of people were massacred. Hundreds of thousands were forced to abandon their homes. Women were sold in markets, raped, and their bodies thrown from balconies. Our people who fell into the hands of the gangs were executed in the streets. Our people’s homes and shops were looted. Hundreds of fighters defending the lands of the Autonomous Administration were martyred, thousands were wounded. There are many of our people who were captured, who we have lost contact to, or whose fate is still unknown.
The bonds created by our peoples for common life are going through a difficult period under the attacks of colonisers and Salafist-jihadist gangs. HTS gangs, emboldened by the courage they received from imperialists and colonisers, launched massacre attacks against Alawites, Druze, Christians and Kurds. They are trying to impose their own dominance by force of arms. HTS gangs, acting in coordination with the ministers of the Turkish state, want to destroy the Rojava revolution for a monolithic, jihadist, woman-hating Syria.
The oppressed peoples and faiths living in the region displayed great resistance against the HTS gangs backed by imperialists and colonisers. The resistance power revealed by our armed and organised people stopped the gangs. Our resistance and our patrols to defend our cities are still ongoing. Women’s battalions and people’s battalions have been established. We continue to keep the fires of resistance burning on the front lines and in the streets of our cities.
Millions responded to the call for help rising from the lands of the Rojava revolution, especially from other parts of Kurdistan and cities in Europe. Our patriotic Kurdistan people have been struggling in the streets for Rojava for days. The brave youth of Southern Kurdistan responded to the mobilisation call by arming themselves and rushed to the Rojava war fronts with a spirit of self-sacrificing resistance. We commemorate with respect Ahmed Hemîn, who came from Kirkûk and sacrificed his life to defend the people of Rojava. We offer our condolences to his family and to the entire Kurdish people. One day, all four parts of Kurdistan will attain their freedom in the spirit of Ahmed Hemîn’s participation in the resistance. We believe in this and struggle for it.
The people of Northern Kurdistan, especially women, marched across borders to defend the Rojava revolution. We salute our people’s courage, determination and embrace. To thwart the liquidation and genocide plans against Rojava, we must continue and further raise this solidarity movement.
Hundreds of people building solidarity with Rojava in Northern Kurdistan and Turkish cities have been detained. Most recently, socialists from Northern Kurdistan and Turkey who took to the streets for Rojava became targets of the fascist Turkish state’s terror. Institutions, homes and party buildings were raided and plundered. We salute the resistance of revolutionary socialists, who are the honourable face of resistance against fascism, and convey our solidarity wishes against attacks on the detainees. We will never leave our comrades who stood by us in our hardest days alone.
A ceasefire has been reached between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF/QSD) and the Damascus administration. An agreement has been reached on an integration deal. It is still uncertain whether the agreement preventing HTS gangs from entering Rojava lands will be permanent. The siege on our city of Kobanê continues. The Damascus administration is making statements targeting the gains of our revolution. They openly declare that they are pursuing a policy aimed at liquidating the Autonomous Administration.
The plan on the table is built on liquidation. The attack plans are comprehensive and broad. However, there is no room for pessimism or despair. It is true that difficult days lie ahead of us. Yet the history of the Rojava revolution is built on heroic resistance. The Rojava revolution has been constructed upon the self-sacrificing resistance of thousands of martyrs symbolised by Deniz and Ziyad in Sheikh Maqsoud. We have repeatedly won our right to exist by resisting with the spirit of Kobanê and Tishrin. Relying on our own strength, our people and our organised power, we will fight, resist and win again. Our faith in this is complete. Our peoples will heroically defend their living spaces and the Autonomous Administration system. With these ideas, we once again say “Long live our Rojava revolution”, “Long live our YPJ/QSD resistance”.
We will never surrender to HTS’s jihadist mentality and attacks, and we will grow the resistance even more. The gains of the Rojava revolution must be most fiercely defended by us – the poor, women, workers, labourers and peasants. This revolution is most needed by the poor millions. Against the capitalist order where man exploits man, the Rojava revolution will be our gateway to socialism. We have all seen together the attacks carried out by woman-hating gangs in the regions they occupied. Women must defend their own freedom against the gangs. The struggle must be expanded to protect the gains of the revolution.
We will continue the struggle for a democratic Syria where all peoples of different nations and faiths living in Syria enjoy full equality of rights. That is why we have not abandoned our positions. And we will never abandon them for our freedom and right to life.
As communists from Rojava, we will continue to be part of this historic resistance to defend the lands of Rojava. We will never surrender, we will never kneel. As the socialist patriots of these lands, we will not allow the seeds of hatred to be sown again among our peoples, starting with Arabs and Kurds. We will defend women’s gains. We will strengthen the organised stance of workers and labourers of every nation, and women, against the occupying enemy. We will foil the plans of the colonising Turkish state and HTS gangs.
We call on our Kurdish people above all, and on the oppressed peoples of our region and the whole world, to grow solidarity with Rojava. This revolution is the revolution of us all.
Long live our Rojava resistance!
Jin Jiyan Azadî!
Long live the solidarity of the peoples!
Long live socialism!
Revolutionary Communist Movement (TKŞ) / Revolutionary Communist Women (JKŞ)
