Democratic Society Movement (TEV-DEM) Co-Chair Remziye Mihemed, who spoke to ANF about the genocidal attacks on Rojava and the resistance of the Kurdish people, said that the targeting of women by mercenary groups is a deliberate attack aimed at breaking the force that builds society, and criticized the silence of the international community in the face of these war crimes.
The women’s revolution in Rojava is being targeted
Remziye Mihemed said that a revolution has been unfolding in Rojava for the past 14 years and continued as follows: “Our revolution is also a women’s revolution. This process, carried out with great determination and under women’s leadership, is the construction of a new way of life. Through this revolution, women became fighters, politicians, and co-chairs; women became economists and educators.
The reason women have been targeted in all the phased attacks carried out against our region is precisely the leading role they have assumed in this revolution. Many of our pioneering women comrades were targeted by armed drones; leading women such as Zeynep, Hevrîn, and Rîhan were killed in this way.
During the attacks on the Sheikh Maqsoud (Şêx Meqsûd) neighborhood in Aleppo, women were once again deliberately targeted. By throwing the body of an internal security fighter from the second floor, they sought to create a climate of fear directed at our people and revolutionary women. One of their aims is to alter women’s role in resistance and struggle through fear. Another aim is to suppress the role of pioneering and fighting women by imposing notions such as ‘honor’ on society and generating fear.
In Tabqa and Raqqa, they attacked people’s lives through extreme brutality. By cutting the braid of a woman fighter, they attempted to take this fear to another level. In the same way, by attacking the dead, they tried to deepen this climate of fear even further.”
The women’s struggle will defeat barbarism
Mihemed said that in the face of the fear and barbarism being imposed, the Kurdish people are standing in the streets alongside their fighters, and continued:
“The legitimate resistance of the Kurdish people cannot be pushed back through special warfare methods, war crimes, or immorality. Today, the Kurdish people have risen and given the strongest response. All of these attacks are barbaric; they are inhumane and constitute clear war crimes. Massacres are being carried out against our people, and attacks are even being carried out against their bodies. While all of this is happening before the eyes of the world, unfortunately the international public remains in deep silence.
Today, this dirty politics and bargaining being carried out over our people and our women is leading to major massacres. This is a major conspiracy. The aim of this conspiracy is to destroy and render the women’s revolution ineffective. Today, the stance of women in Rojava, their standing beside their fighters, their presence within the struggle, and the strength they give to the struggle in every sense, will thwart this conspiracy. Today, our women are the pioneers of the Rojava resistance; they stand beside their fighters, they are within the resistance of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG), and they will defend their people to the very end.
Once again, we call on the entire world: stand by the Rojava Revolution and the gains achieved by women.
The Syrian interim government is directly targeting the existence, will, and rights of women and is attacking to destroy them. It does not want women to exist in any sphere of justice, culture, politics, or governance. Because the culture and system of rules they seek to impose is based on erasing all the colors of the peoples. After the massacres against the Druze and Alawite communities, they now want to carry out a genocide against the Kurdish people.”
Let us fight the massacre and genocide targeting Kobanê
Mihemed said that the will of the Kurdish people is being ignored and that Syria is facing an assault aimed at suffocating all differences, stressing that women are once again taking a leading role in the struggle against these attacks.
She also said: “We will remain in resistance and struggle against these attacks. The ones who suffer the greatest harm in these assaults are children and women. Children are dying along displacement routes; mothers cannot find food for their children, and the attacks end in massacres. Now, with Kobanê being encircled, children are dying from cold and hunger. These attacks, which target the rights and lives of Kurds, have been planned with the aim of massacre and genocide.
Everyone is the target of these attacks. The international public, first and foremost the Kurdish people but also the entire world, must fight against these massacres and the abandonment of civilians to death. Our people have the strength to break this siege. We have never attacked anyone; however, we are defending ourselves to protect our people and our gains, and we will never give up.”