The Rojava Revolution was not merely a military or political struggle waged in a specific geography. It also became the embodiment of the just, egalitarian, and communal way of life that humanity has sought for centuries. Especially in the Middle East, it has shone like a rare pearl. For this reason, Rojava has become the shared conscience not only of those who resist, but also of those who think, produce, dream, and create. At this point, art once again remembered its historical role; it brought together the aesthetic and the political, emotion and consciousness, individual creation and collective struggle.
This time, art emerged in a powerful way like one heart, one voice, one body. The constructive and transformative character of art expanded the resistance, while at the same time opening the way, to the fullest extent, for art itself and for producing art collectively. It became clear that the artist is not merely a witness, but a pioneer who produces and opens new paths. The artist has re-entered the stage of history as a powerful subject who creates emotion, points to the beautiful, the good, and the shared, and guides the human being from isolation toward the communal. The strongest example of this has been witnessed in the songs that rose while the resistance continued in Rojava. The song “Em Bernadin” (“We Resist”) turned into a visual and melodic expression of all our emotions. This is what art is: where resistance and art exist; colonialism weakens. Art gives the strongest response to the nation-state that seeks to construct a psychology of defeat. We saw millions walking with songs of resistance, becoming one voice. We saw them become one heart.
Especially over the past month, the role of intellectuals and artists in the broad sensitivity that has emerged around Rojava cannot be underestimated. The demand of the worlds of art and literature for democracy, freedom, and equality has found a powerful response in Rojava. Artists from different peoples, languages, and cultures became the voice of this resistance; through music, painting, theatre, and literature, they told the story of Rojava to the world. It was not only works of art that were produced; solidarity was expanded, bonds were formed, and borders were crossed. The visit of a group of artists to the resistance fighters in Rojava showed how concrete and genuine this bond is. Artists came together and performed collective works. Artists from Europe traveled to Rojava and joined in the shared sentiment of the struggle.
Music was made; paintings were created; mothers, fathers, and children became one heart in the streets. Art became interwoven with everyday life; people breathed with the resistance. What unfolded also laid bare, with full clarity, the contradiction between the state and the commune (society). The perspective of the manifesto of a democratic society found life in the streets through its calls.
Today, the struggle in Rojava represents a clash between two different ways of life and two different visions of the world. In this confrontation, Rojava has shown that communal life, collective labour, and a shared future are possible.
For this reason, the strong sense of ownership and defence directed toward Rojava, and the surge of national consciousness and shared emotion flowing like a tide, must not remain a temporary reflex. For us Kurds, and for all peoples who have formed a bond with this struggle, this energy must be transformed into structural, systematic, and lasting forms. Emotion must meet organisation; solidarity must meet shared decision-making mechanisms; aesthetic production must meet collective planning.
At this point, a National Kurdish Culture and Arts Conference stands before us as a historical necessity. Such a conference, where artists from the four parts would come together, experiences would be shared, and spaces for collective production would be discussed, could become not merely an event but the beginning of a long-term cultural and political process. This conference would create a ground in which artists come to know one another, think together, and make producing together a lasting practice.
Becoming a commune together and working together is one of the most fundamental responsibilities of art today. We are living in a time of collective light that also embraces individual brilliance.
As artists, we can become the pioneers of a far greater aesthetic, of much stronger, more inclusive, and transformative forms of togetherness. The path opened by the Rojava Revolution is not only one to be defended; it is a path to be expanded through art, culture, and collective production. Through art, we can wage a much greater struggle.
This path becomes meaningful only when it is walked together. We know that spring is close for those who continue to resist.
Leave a Reply