The Co-Presidency of the KCK Executive Council released a statement on the latest developments in Syria and Rojava, and the great common resistance of the Kurdish nation and its friends in the four parts of Kurdistan and abroad.
The KCK statement on Wednesday includes the following:
“On January 4, while an important agreement between a delegation of the Autonomous Administration and a delegation of the transitional government in Damascus was about to be finally agreed on, the Foreign Minister of the transitional government intervened and ended the meeting without any further elaboration. The day after, on January 5, the US, France, HTS, and Turkey reached an agreement in Paris, followed by a targeted attack with heavy weapons on the Kurdish neighborhoods in Aleppo on January 6.
An international conspiracy was put into motion, aiming to dismantle the Autonomous Administration of Rojava and North and East Syria in exchange for handing over southern Syria to Israel. An attack was launched to dismantle the democratic socialist system that had been built by the Kurdish, Arabic, Assyrian, Circassian, Turkmen, and the other peoples of the region in Syria. This is a conspiracy carried out by forces that strive to prevent the peoples from living together as brothers and sisters in equality and strive to prevent a democratization of the Middle East, as they evaluate it as not serving their own interests. And this attack on democratization has essentially become an attack on the Kurdish nation. Thus, the policy of keeping the Middle East under control through the unsolved Kurdish issue has been put into action once again. This attack is not only against Rojava and North and East Syria, but at the same time against Kurds everywhere and the common gains of the peoples.
This conspiracy aimed to start a Kurdish-Arab war. However, the SDF withdrew from Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, and Tabqa to thwart this provocation. The SDF and the people of Rojava Kurdistan have resisted the HTS, which is supported by the Turkish state, which seeks to dismantle the democratic society system and subject the Kurds to genocide, and the gangs and mercenaries acting in concert with it. The attackers were stopped at the borders of Rojava Kurdistan. This resistance has called on all the people of Kurdistan and the democratic forces to rise up, as they did in the 2014 Kobanê resistance. The Kurdish people and the democratic forces in the four parts of Kurdistan have risen up in an even more determined manner than in 2014. This uprising has given the resistance fighters great strength. The world’s democratic public opinion has also stood against this attack on democratization and the gains of the Kurdish people. So much so that the public opinion of the countries involved in this international conspiracy has also risen up, pressuring their governments to stop the attacks. The resistance shown by the SDF and the people of Rojava, along with the uprising of our people and the democratic forces, led to the agreement on January 30.
Before January 4, the Kurdish people’s leader, Abdullah Öcalan, presented a solution project to the Autonomous Administration within the framework of democratic integration; within this framework, an agreement was reached on January 4. Again, Leader Abdullah Öcalan made every effort to end the war with an agreement, and this effort, along with other factors, led to the January 30 agreement.
In addition to the resistance of the SDF, YPG, and YPJ, the arming of the entire people of Rojava, pioneered by its women and youth, played the decisive role in preventing the genocidal forces from achieving their goals. The women’s revolution in Rojava has further deepened the spirit of freedom in society and made the resistance for freedom invincible. Our people in the four parts of Kurdistan and in Europe have joined the mobilization declared in Rojava. The uprising of our people everywhere as a whole is the result of a century of resistance and decades of freedom struggle. The struggle we have waged at great cost in the four parts of Kurdistan, in line with the paradigm of Leader Öcalan, has created unity among our people; this spirit of unity has manifested itself at the highest level in the actions in solidarity with Rojava.
The people of Bakur (northern Kurdistan within the borders of today’s Turkey) have risen up in a manner similar to the uprisings in support of the Kobanê resistance, which they demonstrated magnificently in October 2014. Our people in Bakur, particularly in Amed (tr. Diyarbakir), Wan (tr. Van), Êlih (tr. Batman), Cizre, Nisêbîn (tr. Nusaybin), Kiziltepe, Şirnex (tr. Şirnak), Gever (tr. Yüksekova), and Turkey’s metropolitan cities, stood firm for days, strongly supporting the resistance. It has once again demonstrated that the struggle led by the PKK, in line with the paradigm of our leader, has created a people who can and will resist for their freedom.
The people of Başur (southern Kurdistan within the borders of today’s Iraq) filled the squares for days with great patriotism and enthusiasm and showed a determined stance against the genocidal attacks in Rojava. Aware that the next phase of this genocidal attack would be to destroy the gains in Başur and bring the Kurdish genocide to Başur, they did not just take to the streets; young people rushed to Rojava, took up arms, and fought against the genocidal gangs. We once again honor the memory of Ehmed Omer, the valuable son of Kirkuk who fell as a martyr in Rojava, with respect and gratitude, and we reiterate our promise to realize the dream of a free Kurdistan in all four parts of Kurdistan.
The people of Sulaymaniyah and Kirkuk, driven by a deep awareness of the longing for a free life that began with Sheikh Mahmut Berzenci, have consistently taken to the streets and become the resolute voice of democratic national unity. The people of Başur have risen up in every city and town, demonstrating their strong stance for the realization of democratic national unity on the basis of the people.
Our people from the four parts of Kurdistan in Europe have remained steadfast, providing the finest example of the social foundation of Kurdish unity. Our people from Bakur, Başur, Rojhilat (eastern Kurdistan within the borders of today’s Iran), and Rojava stood together for days in Europe, loudly proclaiming that they would not allow the genocide of the Kurds. Democratic forces, socialists, and internationalist youth in Europe also took part in this uprising, mobilizing European public opinion and the conscience of humanity worldwide.
The people of Rojhilat have also paid a heavy price in the uprisings in Iran. While fighting for the democratization of Iran, many young people from Rojhilat took up arms and joined the resistance mobilization declared in Rojava. In this way, they took their place in the struggle against the international conspiracy of genocide against the Kurds.
Our people in Şengal [Sinjar], Makhmur, and Armenia also rose up against the attacks on Rojava, demonstrating that the social foundation for democratic national unity has been realized. From Australia to Canada, Kurds around the world have risen up and taken their place in the barricades erected against the genocidal forces hostile to the Kurds.
Our people and their friends everywhere in the world deserve great praise and have shown everyone, friend and foe alike, that the Kurds have become a strong democratic nation. Achieving such a reality for the people is of historic importance. With the right leadership and organization, all our people in the four parts of Kurdistan will achieve a free and democratic life.
During this process of solidarity and taking responsibility, our people in the four parts of Kurdistan and abroad not only filled the squares but also carried out a strong solidarity campaign to alleviate the hardships experienced by our people in Rojava. This spirit of solidarity has also been important proof of how strong the sense of national unity is. The responsible behavior of all Kurdish political forces during this process has been effective in its formation.
The Kurdish people and democratic forces have demonstrated that Kurdish national democratic unity has been achieved at the social level. Furthermore, all Kurdish media have played an important role in this process. The unity and stance shown by our people has been a call for democratic national unity to all Kurdish political forces. The responsibility to realize the unity achieved in the social sphere on a democratic basis, in the political sphere and in national institutions falls on all Kurdish political forces. We believe that all political forces will heed our people’s call and strive for democratic national unity. As the Kurdish Freedom Movement, we are ready to participate in this effort at every level. We will strive to fulfill our responsibilities.
A ceasefire and agreement have been reached in Rojava. However, only time will tell whether this ceasefire and agreement will be permanent. In this regard, our entire people and the democratic forces must remain vigilant; solidarity and the taking of responsibility must be sustained everywhere until the situation in Rojava is fully clarified and the rights of the people of Rojava Kurdistan are guaranteed.
We once again congratulate all our people and democratic forces in the four parts of Kurdistan and abroad who have shown solidarity with the resistance of the people of Rojava Kurdistan. This magnificent resistance has revealed once again that a people who rely on their own strength and maintain their unity will surely achieve their freedom by overcoming any attacks and obstacles.”