In a critique of the militaristic patriarchal system, sociologist Dilar
Dirik argued that Kurdish women's resistance operates without hierarchyor domination and is part of the broader transformation and liberation
of society. According to Dirik, the powerful institutions of the world
operate through the state structure, which has the ultimate monopoly on
decision-making, economics, and the use of force. The ubiquitous state
security apparatuses openly run economies of arms trading and benefit
from pitting communities against each other. She further suggested that
to resist, without being militaristic, society should refrain from
imitating state concepts of force and, instead, protect community
values, drawing its strength from below. Society, and especially women,
should first of all "xwebun" (Kurdish term that can be translated as: be
themselves) that is, only by realizing their own existence and its
meaning, they can claim the right to live and defend themselves and the
community, based on a politicized, self-aware, conscious and active
society, which internalizes the ethics of love for the community,
including core values such as commitment to women's liberation, rather
than relying on the laws enforced by the capitalist state and its police
apparatus. The Rose Theory is also explained with the concept of
legitimate self-defense including the creation of basic social and
political mechanisms to protect society beyond mere physical defense. It
emphasizes that in nature living organisms, like roses with thorns,
develop their self-defense systems not to attack, but to protect life.
Kurdish women have also developed practical and theoretical expressions
for a political and social transformation in the direction of overcoming
the Nation-State model and its legitimation through ideological hegemony[i].
In 2015, the world witnessed the Resistance of the city of Kobanê[ii]to
the Islamic State and Dirik's article, published a few months after the
liberation of that city, ended with the invitation to challenge the
fascist historiography that belittles society and to seek in practice
the solutions to social problems through a "sociology of freedom" based
on the voices, on the experiences of the oppressed. Above all, she
concluded that, to be successful, it is essential to know what you are
fighting for. His words resonate on the eve of the Newroz celebrations
on March 21, the fire of the Kurdish New Year, a symbol of the beginning
of spring but also of the end of tyranny and war perpetrated by local
national states and international interests to control this vast
geographical area with a Kurdish majority[iii]and also inhabited by
other minorities including Assyrians, Arabs, Armenians, Syriacs, Turkmen
and Circassians.
Since the 1980s, the population here has self-organized by building a
social and economic structure called Democratic Confederalism inspired
by the thought and founded on the studies of Abdullah Öcalan[iv]who has
been imprisoned on the island of Imrali in Turkey since 1999. In
addition to Rojava (NES North East Syria), today we find other
autonomous areas that are managed according to this paradigm,
coordinated under the acronym DAANES and include over 50 political
organizations. Along with the war, the need for existence of a humanity
that has not resigned itself has multiplied and it is no coincidence
that the most well-known motto globally is Woman Life Freedom (Jin Jiyan
Azadî in Kurdish) since the self-organization and self-defense of women
are among the fundamental prerogatives.
Society is mainly based on the system of communes, which have been
created in hundreds. There are numerous municipalities that have
education, the environment and culture among their priorities. Since the
revolution of July 19, 2012, several generations have grown up outside
of state hegemony, with a concrete alternative to the horror of
bombings, persecution and destruction pursued also using chemical weapons.
13 years of self-management without a state despite the embargo and
attacks in a permanent war scenario between the partitions, the variable
alliances of nations, the mandatory demographic movements. Among the
agreements of recent years stipulated by the nation states, the Abraham
Accord Declaration of 2020, a Peace Treaty known as the Abraham Accords,
certainly plays a significant role.[v]
For the record, on the centenary of the foundation of the Republic of
Turkey, the government of R. T. Erdogan announced a "normalization
process", to guarantee Öcalan "the right to hope" for eventual freedom.
Considering that he is still a man in prison, Öcalan's message of
December 28, 2024 was forwarded to the TBMM (Turkish Parliament). A
message of hope laden with skepticism due to the failure of the
2013-2015 peace process when Erdogan's government silenced dissent with
arrests, harassment, imprisonment, and launched a campaign to dismantle
Kurdish political structures by removing Kurdish mayors and replacing
them with his own trustees. The same thing is still happening today in
Van, where the population is rebelling. The last decade is among the
harshest and most oppressive eras of state violence perpetrated against
Kurdish uprisings.
Terms such as "sari torba" (yellow sack of death) and "terroristan"
(country of terror) have emerged as dark symbols among the examples of
policies used in the last decade[vi].
The normalization effort with the Abraham Accords has confronted Turkey
with the evidence of Erdogan's growing isolation, and to these we add
his exclusion from projects such as the India-Middle East-Europe
Economic Corridor (IMEC) and the momentum gained internally by
grassroots movements advocating women's freedom, the protection of
minorities and further challenging the authoritarian government.
Peace, in my opinion, is not an easily achievable process since it
should take into account the richness of the struggles continuously and
without interruptions and furthermore the current process of struggle is
proving to be denser and more conscious than the old one.
To stay on topic, last February 15 was the 26th anniversary of the
international conspiracy that led to the arrest of Öcalan and like every
year there are demonstrations in different parts of the world. In Europe
tens of thousands of people in solidarity, the Kurdish exile and refugee
community are mobilizing to demand the end of the isolation and his
release along with those of other political prisoners. Among the
initiatives organized around that day of struggle, we remember the
arrival of the international march, a walking route that started in
Switzerland on February 10, its passage was announced in a press
conference in Strasbourg (France) and ended in Cologne (Germany) on
February 17. In Italy, the path towards this day was punctuated by a
series of press conferences, sit-ins and public assemblies that led to
the demonstrations in Rome and Milan.
In any case, the peace path, reactivated in October 2024, allowed visits
by relatives and lawyers in the Imrali prison but at the same time the
Turkish army intensified the bombings while HTS Hayat Tahrir al-Sham,
with SNA (Syrian National Army), settled with their government in
Damascus following the escape of Bashar Al Assad from Syria.
Turkey and SNA have targeted media workers to hide the crimes committed
in the occupied regions, with drone strikes and other means with the aim
of suffocating or eliminating journalism, a common method of
authoritarian regimes, globally, whose aim is to control the media as
well as eliminate dissent at any cost and by any means at their disposal.
Since 2019, 14 journalists have been killed by the Turkish state in this
region, including Egîd Roj killed in a Turkish drone strike in northern
Syria. He had carried out important information work on the hostilities
at the Tishreen dam in Aleppo province in Syria, which is currently at
the center of a Turkish-jihadist offensive. The dam is a key structure
on the Euphrates River, both for irrigation and for energy production.
Its construction is part of a historical process that is intertwined
with the complex political and geographical situation of the region and
since 8 December 2024 it has been the target of air and ground attacks
by Turkey and its paramilitary groups.
Construction began in the 1980s and was completed and put into operation
in 1999. Between 2013 and 2015 it fell into the hands of ISIS and the
infrastructure was severely damaged, irrigation systems were interrupted
along with electricity production. In 2015, the YPG and YPJ forces of
the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) recaptured the dam which was repaired
and reactivated but the water level dropped again when Turkey reduced
the flow from the Euphrates River, negatively affecting electricity
production. The dam stores and regulates water needed for agriculture,
drinking water, industry and its location also increases the efficiency
of irrigation systems. However, the importance of the dam is not limited
to its economic dimension as it also plays a strategic role in a time of
civil war for the balance of power.
With the outbreak of the war in Syria, in fact, the Tisrîn dam, like
other strategic points, has come under the control of various armed
groups. For this reason, on January 8, 2025, thousands of people from
the north and east of Syria set out for the dam, following the call of
the Autonomous Administration and began a vigil, to protect it together
with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Women's Defense Units
(YPJ) who are facing attacks by the Turkish army and mercenaries allied
to the SNA. In the context of the regime-change underway in Syria after
December 8, the area around Tisrîn, as well as around the other bridges
and dams on the Euphrates, has become of vital importance because the
existence of the revolutionary experience in Rojava depends on its
integrity and on the fact that control remains with the Autonomous
Administration. With the dam falling, the jihadist gangs supported and
directed by Turkey would have an open road to the heart of the
revolution. Despite all the attacks and massacres, the people did not
back down. The popular cordon that was created around the Tisrîn dam is
very clear that defending that place, which overlooks Kobanê, actually
means defending the revolution. In Tisrîn, the heart of the Euphrates,
they are continuing their fight with the slogan "Tisrîn ava ax u jiyana
me ye" (Tisrîn, the water of our land and our life).
Norma Santi
Image: Dalla parte del Rojava - Militanza Grafica poster, detail
[i]Article by Dilar Dirik, Kurdish sociologist, published by the
editorial staff of IAPH Italia (International Association of Female
Philosophers), June 8, 2017 on the website
http://www.iaphitalia.org/lautodifesa-radicale-delle-donne-curde-armata-e-politica/
[ii]Kobane is a city in Rojava. Rojava is a region in north-eastern
Syria on the border with Turkey that includes three cantons: Cizre,
Kobane and Afrin. It declared autonomy from the Syrian state in 2014 and
has its own Social Contract updated in 2024. The Islamic State (Daesh in
Arabic) was established between 2013 and 2014 with the Caliphate of Al
Baghdadi and had as its stronghold the cities of Mosul and Raqqa in
Syria. The last IS outpost at Baghouz was defeated on March 19, 2019. On
March 18, Lorenzo Orsetti (Orso) fell
[iii]There are approximately 35 million Kurds divided between the states
of Turkey, Syria, Iran, Iraq and other exiles and refugees in Europe and
other parts of the world.
[iv]Ocalan was among the founders of the Kurdistan Workers' Party.
Beyond the State, Power and Violence, Writings from Prison, A.Ocalan,
Milan, Punto Rosso, 2016
[v]On September 15, 2020, the White House hosted the signing of the
Abraham Accords Peace Agreements: Treaty of peace, diplomatic relations
and full normalization between the United Arab Emirates and the State of
Israel and the Abraham Accords: Declaration of Peace, Cooperation and
Constructive Diplomatic and Friendly Relations announced by the State of
Israel and the Kingdom of Bahrain, with the participation of Israeli
Prime Minister B. Netanyahu and the Foreign Ministers of the United Arab
Emirates (UAE) and the Kingdom of Bahrain, and US President Donald Trump.
[vi]Derogatory terms used by Erdogan and his allies: Sari torba (yellow
death bag) which refers to the body bags used to transport the remains
of Kurdish guerrillas and activists; Terroristan to describe the Kurdish
regions in northern Iraq and Syria, defined as havens for terrorism to
justify military aggression.
https://umanitanova.org/dal-cuore-del-rojava-difendere-la-rivoluzione/
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