The genocidal attack carried out in Aleppo took place following meetings held in Paris between the United States, Israel, the Damascus administration, and Hakan Fidan. According to the account, an agreement was reached between the Israeli and Damascus administrations under which southern Syria was left under Israeli control. In return, the removal of Kurds from Aleppo and the transfer of control of the city to the Turkish state were envisaged.
In fact, the Turkish state’s ambition to seize and administer Aleppo had already been evident last year, on 8 December, when the Assad regime collapsed. At the time, attempts were reportedly made to raise the Turkish flag in the city. Now, simultaneously with southern Damascus being left under Israeli control, attacks were launched against the Sheikh Maqsoud (Şêxmeqsûd) and Ashrafieh (Eşrefiyê) neighborhoods of Aleppo. What was planned in Aleppo was described as an act of “ethnic cleansing,” amounting to genocide. It is asserted that this demand came from the Turkish state, with Hakan Fidan acting as its spokesperson.
As is known, the deadline set for the implementation of the 10 March Agreement had been reached. Officials from the Justice and Development Party (AKP)–Nationalist Movement Party alliance (MHP) were issuing daily threats against the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). It was noted that even the interim administration in Damascus was not issuing threats at this level. For this reason, Abdullah Öcalan intervened from Imralı, calling on the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria to proceed with the implementation of the 10 March Agreement and to ensure that it did not become a cause for conflict.
Öcalan also called for steps to be taken to resolve outstanding issues with the Damascus government and outlined several concrete proposals on how such steps could be pursued. The Kurdish Freedom Movement, it was stated, responded positively to Öcalan’s approach and sought to fulfill its responsibilities by playing its role in translating this perspective into practice.
Following the message conveyed in a friendly manner by Abdullah Öcalan to the AANES, a delegation from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) traveled to hold talks with the Damascus interim government. According to information shared on Ronahî TV by Sîpan Hemo, one of the SDF commanders who took part in the delegation, the talks were proceeding very positively from the perspective of both sides.
Hemo said that the representative of the country acting as guarantor to the talks had even wanted the outcomes of the agreement reached to be made public. However, at the last moment, the meeting was intervened in and disrupted. It remains unclear where this intervention came from and who was behind it. While the Turkish state is the first actor that comes to mind in this context, Turkey’s capacity would not be sufficient to carry out such an intervention against the will of the guarantor country. It is therefore suggested that the order came from a much more powerful source. These same forces, it is noted, are also those that approved granting the Turkish state guardianship over the Damascus interim administration.
At precisely the moment when these positive steps, intended by the Kurdish side toward the practical implementation of the 10 March Agreement in Syria, were beginning to take concrete shape, genocidal attacks were carried out against the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods of Aleppo. This, in turn, laid bare the fact that neither the Damascus interim administration nor the Turkish state, which seeks to manage and direct it, genuinely wants a democratic solution for Syria.
Rather than seeking an agreement, their primary objective, it is argued, is to dismantle the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria and eliminate the democratic society system that has been established there, a reality that has now been exposed for all to see.
The primary planner of the genocidal and brutal attacks carried out against Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo is identified as Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, with Turkish Minister of National Defense Yaşar Güler described as the second key planner. Indeed, the Peace Mothers, who organized democratic protests in Ankara against these genocidal attacks, called on Hakan Fidan to resign, stating that they clearly recognized this reality. Accordingly, it is argued that the Turkish state did not merely become complicit in the Kurdish genocide in Aleppo but actively led it. The Peace Mothers, it is said, perceived this with deep wisdom. Kurds, the text maintains, now understand the logic of the Turkish state very well.
While the genocidal attacks and what are described as “ethnic cleansing operations” in Aleppo were ongoing, Turkish state officials and media outlets close to them openly embraced the operation, acting as if they themselves were carrying it out, and promoted those perpetrating the violence on the ground. A comprehensive campaign of what is described as “special warfare” was waged to legitimize the brutality. The realities experienced in those two neighborhoods were brazenly distorted and turned upside down.
The genocidal attack against Kurds in Aleppo, the text argues, exposed once again that the Turkish state has not moved beyond, and continues to pursue, a policy of hostility toward Kurds. The Turkish state followed an anti-Kurdish policy through its opposition to the SDF. It was present there both through its state doctrine and through its tanks and armed drones. It is further claimed that some Turkish officers were directly involved in conducting the war in the Kurdish neighborhoods, an assertion said to have been publicly stated by the SDF Command. As a result, there was no longer any need for what Defense Minister Yaşar Güler described as inviting the Turkish state through the media to provide a pretext for intervention in Syria.
Following the atrocities carried out in Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh, Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the MHP, once again spoke of “Kurdish–Turkish brotherhood” during his party’s parliamentary group meeting. The phrase “Kurdish–Turkish brotherhood,” it is argued, has rarely been so detached from its meaning as it is today. By targeting Rojava through hostility toward the Syrian Democratic Forces before the new year, Bahçeli effectively paved the way for such brutality and what is described as a rehearsal for a Kurdish genocide. Yet he continued to invoke Kurdish–Turkish brotherhood from the parliamentary rostrum. This situation, the text maintains, has inevitably drawn both the anger and condemnation of Kurds toward him.
The Kurdish leading political will, it is argued, may attempt to tolerate the Turkish state from this point onward, but restoring the trust of the Kurdish people now appears extremely difficult. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had already exhausted his credibility on this issue. For this reason, and to present a more convincing figure for the launch of what has been described as a new “Peace and Democratic Society Process,” Devlet Bahçeli was brought to the forefront. Until the attack on Aleppo, Bahçeli played this role effectively. However, following his threatening statements that targeted Rojava through opposition to the Syrian Democratic Forces and the subsequent genocidal attack in Aleppo, he has lost both his influence and credibility in the eyes of the Kurdish people.
The seeds of trust and expectation that had begun, however cautiously, to grow among the Kurdish people toward Devlet Bahçeli were extinguished in Aleppo through the hands of Turkish-state-backed mercenaries, embodied in the killing of a woman revolutionary who was thrown from the third floor. As the Kurdish people laid the body of Ziyad to rest, they also buried what little trust and expectation had begun to form toward Bahçeli. For this reason, it now appears extremely difficult for any future statements or speeches by Bahçeli to rebuild that fragile sense of trust and belief.
I commemorate with respect and gratitude Ziyad, Guerilla Amara, Leyla Qasım, Malik, and Brusk Muxarac, who resisted to the very end during the Aleppo attack and fell as self-sacrificing martyrs. Their heartfelt devotion to their people, their unwavering determination to protect civilians, the strong will they displayed, and their exceptional courage became a torch illuminating the path of all Kurds in the new year. In Aleppo, it was human dignity that prevailed. Ziyad, Guerilla Leyla, Malik, and Brusk represented the bright defense of human dignity and values with unshakable resolve. They did not surrender to darkness. Through the light they created by resisting, they enabled Kurds to unite around that clarity. They revealed the combined force of Kurdish anger across Northern Kurdistan (Bakur), Southern Kurdistan (Başur), Eastern Kurdistan (Rojhilat), and Rojava. They also demonstrated, once again, that beyond self-defense, the Kurdish people have no other guarantee for their existence.
Kurds are currently standing everywhere, and their anger is deep and visible. In Northern Kurdistan, a process that had begun to take shape is steadily losing its credibility, and Kurds are questioning this with profound anger. They are even holding their own representatives to account. The people of Iran and the Kurds of Eastern Kurdistan are also on their feet. The entire region is ablaze. To maintain control, the regime carries out massacres daily, arrests thousands, and executes dozens. Yet its power is no longer sufficient to restore order. The Iranian regime, too, is undergoing a major shock. Meanwhile, the future of Iraq and Southern Kurdistan is moving toward uncertainty. Southern Kurdistan, particularly considering what has taken place in Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh, has recognized the dangers it faces and has therefore risen in response. Rojava is already standing firm, fueled by its full measure of anger. In this sense, Kurds are now acutely aware that they are confronting immense challenges, while at the same time experiencing one of their most dynamic moments. Fully alert in every respect, they are sending powerful messages through this unified stance. Those pursuing misguided calculations must read these messages clearly and reassess their plans accordingly.
Source: Yeni Özgür Politika