The ideology that fuels al-Sharaa’s HTS—brought to power in Syria under the name of “transitional government” and unleashed against the peoples—is one of massacre-driven nationalism, religious extremism, and sexism. The financiers and masterminds of these attacks include regional powers such as Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, as well as global hegemonic powers like the United States and the United Kingdom. Their primary objective is to politically neutralize and eliminate the Rojava Revolution, developed by the Kurdish people as an alternative model. The way of life embodied and implemented in the Rojava Revolution constitutes a unique structure that opens space for women, peoples, beliefs, and cultures to organize themselves through their own will. Intellectuals, thinkers, academics, writers, artists, and politicians who draw inspiration from—and hold up as an example—the political, philosophical, and theoretical dimensions of this model are today demonstrating solidarity at a higher level than ever before.
Despite the dark times we are passing through, the way of life developed through the example of the Rojava Revolution, and the resistance of the daughters and sons of the Kurdish people, continues to shed light on what is good and beautiful—despite all hostile efforts of concealment and blackout. If the Kurds, whose very existence was once denied, have today become a source of inspiration for all through their struggle for freedom, it is thanks to these resistance fighters. The one who created, shaped, and led this spirit is the Kurdish People’s Leader, Abdullah Öcalan.
Friends who stand in solidarity with the honorable resistance of the Kurdish Freedom Movement expressed their support and solidarity with the ongoing struggle in Rojava (Western Kurdistan).
Eric Fassin, professor of sociology and gender studies, Université Paris 8, research center SOPHIAPOL, Institut Universitaire de France:
The repression or, worse, the war against the Kurds, is not just about the Kurdish people. It is a war against democratic hopes. So, it is a concern for all of us – in France as much as elsewhere. That is the lesson I have learned from working on minority issues for thirty-five year: it’s never just about “them”; it’s always also about “us “. The way minorities are treated (whether ethnic or racial, religious or sexual) is a reliable indicator of the state of democracy. If we tolerate discriminations, we could end up condoning apartheid, massacres, even genocides. As an academic, I admire the way Rojava revolution has managed, despite the war, or should I say in reaction to the war, to develop universities in Northern and Eastern Syria. This is a model all of us should imitate in these days of rabid anti-intellectualism: it is a powerful way to resist the anti-democratic wave that floods the world today. That’s why we must stand with the Kurds.
Prof. Ueli Mäder, sociologist, Professor Emeritus, University of Basel, Suisse:
“Major powers are once again increasingly guided by the law of the jungle. Instead of consistently protecting international law, they themselves disregard it. This tempts other countries to imitate this injustice and disregard international law. Once again, many Kurdish people are among the victims, for example, in Rojava. This demands greater solidarity from all democratic forces worldwide: for international law, for the protection of civilians, and for democratic self-organization.”
Dimitrios Roussopoulos, political activist and publisher, Canada:
“In a world situation with major life-threatening problems facing us, and in the Middle East, a territory overrun by fanatical monotheistic religions, Rojava stands out as a territory of not only rational sensibility but also as a noble collective effort to build an entirely new form of society, in balance with nature. Rojava and Chiapas must be defended by us, with zeal and determination, as the forces of reaction attempt to push these efforts of social reconstruction aside. Defend Rojava at all costs !”
Thomas Kilpper, professor at the Academy of Art and Design in Bergen in Norway, lives in Berlin:
“I am appalled and disgusted by the current attacks on the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), and especially by the silence of the NATO states while Turkey as their member state obviously is involved in this aggression.I wish the people in the Kurdish areas freedom and an immediate end to the hostilities.”
Rahila Gupta, author and activist, UK:
I have been following the latest attacks by the Syrian government army and its ragtag collection of Turkish militias and ISIS fighters against the Kurdish neighbourhoods of Aleppo with a growing sense of horror and fear for the future of the Kurdish people and their genuinely democratic project based on women’s liberation and multi-ethnic inclusivity.
I condemn the attacks on the Kurdish people, as well as the Druze and the Alawites, not simply on humanitarian grounds but because the Kurdish political project is a small flicker of light in the darkness that has descended in this unapologetic revival of US imperialism. For Ahmed Al Sharaa, President of Syria and Trump’s attack dog, the real prize is the end of democracy and secularism in DAANES (Rojava) and the forcible integration of this oil-rich area into the centralised, Islamic state that he is seeking to build.
I call for solidarity with the Kurdish people and their cause. Their courageous resistance against all the odds has been central to the uprisings in Iran too, another country in which they are a substantial minority whose basic rights have been trampled upon for years. The 2022 Woman Life Freedom movement was sparked by the killing of a Kurdish woman, Jina Mahsa Amini, the slogan was borrowed from the Kurdish women’s struggles and adopted across Iran. The Islamic regime’s repression has been disproportionately felt by Kurdish women and men who are overrepresented in Iranian prisons. In common with the rest of the Iranian resistance, their demands for a decentralised, democratic Iran are being met with extreme brutality.
Their struggle for a different future is also our struggle. We are all facing a dangerous world in which there is an upward momentum of far-right, supremacist, nationalist, anti-democratic, illiberal forces. The Kurdish people are at the sharp end of it.
Let us recognise our commonality and stand up for the Kurdish people.
Dr. Jan van Aken, Co-Chair of Die Linke, Germany:
“The forces of the so-called Syrian transitional government are currently threatening Rojava—a project of democratic autonomy and confederalism that represents one of the greatest hopes for a democratic future in the Middle East. Our solidarity lies with the democratic self-administration in northern and eastern Syria and the people of Rojava. The attacks are directed against an emancipatory project of self-determination, women’s rights, and a life without oppression. Together with our foreign policy spokespersons, Cansu Özdemir and Co-Chair Ines Schwerdtner, I call on the German government to take its political responsibility seriously: The attacks must be clearly condemned, the announced state visit by Ahmed al-Sharaa must be canceled, and international pressure must be built up, including within the framework of the United Nations. Under these conditions, there can be no normalization of relations with Syria. Anyone who takes democracy and human rights seriously cannot remain silent about Rojava.”
Mahmoud Patel, legal scholar, academic and human rights activist is the Chairperson of the Kurdish Human Rights Action Group in South Africa.
“Solidarity for Rojava. For the past fifteen years in Rojava/Northern and Eastern Syria, under constant pressure and repeated attacks by imperial, sub-imperial, and colonial powers, our people have built a shared life through collective capacity. Against capitalism and patriarchy, Rojava advances a society rooted in women’s liberation, ecological life, and democratic self-rule. Under the conditions of war across the region, and against the violence and impositions of regional states and their mercenaries, Kurds in Rojava relied on their own self-defence and diplomacy to build a life that once seemed impossible.
The situation in Kobanê is particularly dire. The city is currently under siege, surrounded by Syrian Army forces on one side and the Turkish army on the other. For seven days, there has been no electricity, no access to water, and no reliable access to basic necessities. Under these conditions, living and being human is targeted as part of a coordinated siege. The US, as an imperialist power and hegemon of the capitalist world system, pursues the goal of exploiting the achievements of a society’s struggle for freedom for its own interests.
The US, Turkey and its imperialist allies have been responsible for the havoc unleashed in North and North-East Syria against the Kurdish and freedom-loving people. Against this backdrop, the current genocidal conduct must be understood not only in political and military terms, but also in terms of their ideological depth. The forces of capitalist modernity have coordinated their efforts to increase pressure on the Kurds, to contain them, and to instrumentalise and exploit them in accordance with their own strategic plans. These attacks have once again shown that the forces of capitalist modernity are capable of trampling on all values in pursuit of their own interests.
In contradistinction, the strategic line of Rojava is clear: its partners are not imperialist states, but global democratic forces, social movements and anti-systemic actors who advocate self-determination, equality and an alternative social order.
ISIS flags have been raised above Raqqa. Jihadist fighters have escaped from prison camps. Statues erected in memory of Kurdish fighters are being toppled. A nightmare reminiscent of the ISIS terror that swept Syria a decade ago is being unleashed. At this juncture, it is crucial to explain how things ended up in this reactionary dead end and draw the lessons needed to advance the struggle for Kurdish freedom.
The attack on Rojava is not solely aimed at destroying the achievements of Kurdish society. Rather, the goal of this international plan, which is supported by regional actors such as Israel and Turkey as well as international forces – above all the US and European states – is to destroy the project and idea of a democratic Syria and a democratic Middle East.
The attack is directed against the principles of local democracy, women’s liberation, equal rights for ethnic and religious communities, and the idea of a ‘third way.’ It is intended to demonstrate that alternatives beyond the nation state, nationalism and power politics are not possible. The Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria is therefore being forced into either total surrender in order to return to the order that existed before 2011 or complete physical annihilation.
The Turkish army’s conduct and its proxies with the Syrian transitional authority constitute a gross violation of international law. Turkey’s breach of international law is not merely the opinion of solidarity groups; the Council of Europe has through the European Court of Human Rights condemned Turkey more than 2 800 times since 1959.
Religious extremists who surround the current Turkish and Syrian governments know that Rojava does not threaten them militarily. It threatens them by providing an alternative vision of what life in the region could be.
Above all, they feel it is critical to send the message to women across the Middle East that if they rise up for their rights, let alone rise up in arms, the likely result is that they will be maimed and killed, and none of the major powers will raise an objection. Rojava saved not only Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, but also the rest of the world.
Turkey, the transitional state in Syria, and its acolytes should not try to delegitimise people’s rightful claims to self-determination by unleashing a genocide and branding them terrorists, but should seek a political solution through dialogue based on dignity, human rights, and not war. We must express our solidarity in every possible way and stand firm with Rojava and its people, for a better, humane world.”