Despite ceasefire statements, a serious humanitarian crisis risk is unfolding in Northern and Eastern Syria, particularly in Kobanê, where attacks have continued unabated. Families forced to flee due to assaults by armed groups in villages south of Kobanê and in Hasakah (Hesekê) have been directly targeted. Over the past three days, eleven members of two Kurdish families, including children, were killed in Kobanê and Raqqa, while four women were abducted. No information has yet been received about women who were kidnapped or taken captive in two neighborhoods of Aleppo. The latest footage released shows the bodies of deceased women and men fighters being subjected to torture. International institutions, however, have remained silent in the face of these war crimes against women and children.
Roza Kahya, an activist with the Peace Need Women’s Initiative (BIV), addressed the attacks carried out by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) mercenaries affiliated with the Syrian interim government against Northern and Eastern Syria, as well as the war crimes committed against women’s bodies. Kahya said that HTS and its allied jihadist structures were pursuing policies that directly target women’s bodies, adding that the resistance in Rojava would continue to be conveyed to the world.
HTS cannot establish a democratic order in Syria
Roza Kahya said that HTS was not a regime chosen by the people but had been brought to power in Syria through imperialist alliances, and continued as follows: “This structure referred to as HTS began organizing in the early 2010s and, together with the genocide carried out against the Yazidi people, revealed itself as a continuation of the ISIS structure. The individual named Ahmed Al-Sharaa (al-Jolani), who was brought to power after the overthrow of Assad, is also an ISIS militant. For this reason, we have stated from the very beginning that HTS cannot establish a democratic order in Syria or one in which peoples can live freely.
We all know what ISIS inflicted on women, children, and communities in these lands. We experienced its consequences in Turkey as well, through bomb attacks and massacres. Today, we also know that it continues to exist through sleeper cells.”
There can be no war on one side of the border and peace on the other
Roza Kahya said that just as they had taken to the streets for Palestine, they were also mobilizing for Alawite, Druze, and Kurdish women now facing massacres, adding that they had anticipated Kurds would be targeted after Aleppo. She said this was due to the communal and democratic governance model implemented in Rojava.
Kahya said women played an equal role in governance and self-defense, stressing that this stood in direct opposition both to the ideology of HTS and to the outlook of imperialist powers. She also criticized Turkey’s policy in this process.
Kahya said, “While Turkey claims to be pursuing a peace process on the one hand, it is able to support HTS attacks against Kurds across the border on the other. We experienced this before during the peace process, in Kobanê and in Afrin (Efrîn). Maintaining a discourse of peace on this side of the border while supporting the killing of Kurds on the other side is not peace.”
The ISIS mentality continues
Roza Kahya drew attention to crimes committed against women’s bodies during the attacks and said: “As women, we know that a woman’s body is not a battlefield. The entire burden of war falls on women’s shoulders: violence, poverty, displacement, and care work. For this reason, if a peace process being pursued in Turkey is to be genuine, it must not involve support for the killing of Kurds in Syria. As women, we do not accept the HTS regime as the authority governing Syria. We do not consent to successors of ISIS holding power there. Accounts of women being thrown from rooftops, having their hair cut, and being beheaded remind us of twelve years ago. We know very well that the same mentality is continuing.”
Despite everything, the resistance there gives us strength
Roza Kahya said that, as feminists from Turkey, they would continue to expand women’s solidarity and make the struggle and resistance of women in Rojava visible in every sphere. She concluded with the following remarks:
“Despite everything, the resistance there gives us strength. Twelve years ago, it was said that ‘Kobanê has fallen, Kobanê will fall,’ but it did not fall. Today, we know that the same spirit still exists. If Rojava is not liberated, Turkey cannot be liberated either. Supporting HTS means massacres in Syria and new bombings in Turkey.
For this reason, we see the democratic co-chair system implemented in Rojava as extremely valuable, and we raise our voices everywhere. It is no coincidence that this life model, based on the equal representation of women, is being targeted. The first target of Islamist and jihadist mentality has always been women.”