For a long time now, I have been following the values created by the 14-year revolution in Rojava. It is astonishing under what conditions and circumstances such values have been created. A sacred place, won at such a cost, liberated… Rojava is the sum of values: a country, a future, hope for the peoples…
In every city, every street, every avenue, and every house, there are traces of the revolution and evidence of life lived. A place that bears witness to history. A geography forged in the duel between the sacred and the cursed.
Despite all the difficulties, pressures, attacks, and mindsets, Rojava has blossomed like a flower in the desert, ushering in a springtime for the peoples. It is a paradise garden created through 14 years of immense effort and sacrifice. Although it has its shortcomings and inadequacies, it is a garden of peoples and faiths where great achievements and social consensus have been realized.
With this belief and ideology, Rojava is the final destination of socialism. It is the first place of democratic socialism, where its first footsteps took root. It is the only oasis in the desert. Marxism and Leninism, which built socialism based on Hegel’s understanding of left-wing dialectics, showed that a livable world is possible.
However, the dialectic created by the German philosopher Hegel laid the foundations for two different views. On the one hand, right-wing Hegelianism created the basis for German fascism and, in later periods, for the ideas and practices that revived fascism and formed nation-states. On the other hand, left-wing Hegelianism led to the emergence of an understanding and practice that led to Marxism, that is, to socialism as a whole.
However, because the state and power were not fully understood in either direction, the revolution remained superficial. It failed to bring about change and transformation on a social basis for the sake of society. With a revolutionary understanding that merely changed colors, it destroyed the old and created the new, placing governance and power in the hands of the working class, which had struggled for hundreds of years. However, social changes also became the first warning sign of their collapse due to inadequate and misguided understanding and implementation within society. Because the reality of power and the state could not be fully revealed, the system perpetuated itself. Only a superficial change occurred, while any substantive change could not be brought about. In short, the revolution remained an overthrow; it did not lead to social freedom or revolution.
For this reason, the Marxist, Leninist, and Maoist revolutions, created at the cost of thousands of lives and immense effort, became the system’s greatest defenders by engaging with it. While Lenin’s Soviets, together with Stalin, turned into Soviet fascism, Mao’s communism was forced to transform into the greatest capitalist. A socialism divorced from society cannot go beyond being a continuation of the system.
Therefore, it is necessary to create entirely innovative ideas in socialism, Marxism, Leninism, and Maoism. It is necessary to re-examine and socialize socialism. It is necessary to reveal the social nature of socialism to be lived, purged of misconceptions and mentalities. It is necessary to address the understanding of socialism, which does not belong to just one class, in a broad spectrum and attribute it to society.
In this context, Leader Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] sought to socialize socialism by recognizing its shortcomings and changing and transforming them. By correcting the shortcomings of real socialism and scientific socialism, he brought a new perspective to socialism and revealed its essential core by developing democratic socialism. In creating this idea, he approached it with respect for the values and efforts that had been created.
In line with the ideas of Leader Apo, socialism is being recreated and made livable in Rojava. Because Rojava, in Northeast Syria, democratic socialism is being lived as a whole despite all the shortcomings and deficiencies. A revolution is taking place in which societies, genders, beliefs, and peoples are created together with shared values.
In Rojava, a world is being created where peoples respect each other; a world where people do not hinder but rather value each other, create value, and develop within a system that fosters this. The first concrete step toward the paradise life described in Thomas More’s “Utopia,” which I read years ago, is being seen in Rojava. The richness of beliefs, mutual respect, and an understanding that does not hinder but rather develops one another, demonstrates that a livable world is possible.
Rojava is the name of a region where equality between genders (women and men) and, at a more advanced stage, women’s liberation is realized in administrative, economic, and social life. Rojava is the name of a place where income distribution is equal, social solidarity and communal socio-economics are revived. Rojava is a mosaic of peoples where different ideas, cultures, and political factions peacefully exchange their thoughts.
Isn’t that what democratic socialism exactly is? Isn’t it a life and a revolution that belongs to no particular group, but to all communities, peoples, colors, and beliefs? Rojava is the name of the first fruit of that revolution. Rojava is not a banned country, identity, or belief; it is the place where the first step toward a new world has been taken. Rojava is the name of the possibility that a new life can be created even under such pressure and attack.
Rojava is the name of the place where a new perspective on socialism has been introduced and developed. Rojava is the final destination of socialism and the first step toward democratic socialism. That is why it attracts so much attention and gives so much hope to the peoples.
Rojava is the common heritage of both the peoples living there and all the peoples of the world. Rojava is the product of historical socialist thought. For this reason, we must protect Rojava, the garden of peoples created by historic values, and we must nurture the values that have been created.
The first priority for this is the defense and protection of Rojava because it is a shared value and heritage of all the peoples of the world.