(en) Crisis in Rojava: A call to our sisters and women comrades by Feminists and LGBTs in Turkey

Statement on the crisis in Rojava from feminists and LGBTs in Turkey ---- We may pretend 
that nothing is happening, but it is. One of the unique experiences of women?s history is 
under threat of being shattered. It is not a matter that is important only for Kurdish 
people, it is a matter for all of us. ---- Women of Rojava and Kurdish women fighters have 
made a revolution for an alternative life possible by sinking their teeth into it. It is 
an alternative life not only for women but also for all minorities, all ethnicities that 
they can live together in a peaceful way. And it is an alternative to capitalism and to 
patriarchy. ---- ISIS is massacring all minorities like Ezidis, Turkmens, Christians and 
many others in the Middle East. Just a month ago Ezidis of Sinjar were slaughtered. 
Together with the USA, Turkey and other powers, ISIS desires to end particularly this 
alternative life that these women have made possible.

As we all may know, when Nazis carried out the genocide against Jewish people in the 
camps, although not all of the world was aware of what was happening in Nazi Germany, but 
some countries were and they chose to remain silent because of some bloody political 
tactics. Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians again and again and the last was the 
Gaza massacre. International powers have condoned the war crimes Israel committed again 
because of their bloody political interests. In 1990s the international powers did nothing 
except pretending they were doing something while the Serbian Army was raping, killing and 
torturing women. And now in the Middle East, ISIS is executing a gruesome war. ISIS 
members are raping women, executing incomprehensible atrocity against women. And 
international powers pretend to do something but actually they are waiting for ISIS to end 
this alternative life in Rojava led by Kurdish women. These international powers along 
with our country Turkey are trying to sacrifice Kobani for some political tactics, and 
Turkey is going further and directly supporting ISIS members. Turkey wants to make Rojava 
a bufferzone by evacuating just like Israel did for Palestinian land. Ironically, these 
are feast days in the Muslim World but actually there is nothing to celebrate under these 
painful circumstances.

In all wars it is always women?s lives and gains which have been sacrificed for some 
political tactics. We as women all around the world cannot let history repeat itself. We 
all have to defend Kurdish women in Rojava otherwise the history of women?s struggle will 
not forgive us. Even if the lives of these women who have created an alternative life in 
Rojava do not matter for the states and the powerful, these lives must be a matter for us 
who are struggling for a better life for women.

It is a historical responsibility for women?s rights activists, for feminists, for LGBT 
people, for socialist women and Muslim women all around the world.

WE CANNOT GO ON WITH OUR LIVES AS IF NOTHING HAPPENING! WE SHOULD RAISE OUR VOICE AGAINST 
THIS MASSACRE OF ISIS AGAINST KURDISH WOMEN EVERYWHERE WE LIVE BY ALL MEANS. WE SHOULD 
RAISE OUR VOICE. WE SHOULD DEFEND THESE WOMEN. WE SHOULD RISE UP.

Feminists and LGBTs from Turkey