Zeynep Umut, a board member of Rojava Fine Arts University, spoke about the developments in Aleppo on 6 January, addressing Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) attacks targeting Kurds and the psychological and ideological dimensions of modern warfare, not only its military aspects. She said that the targeting of health institutions in particular, the legitimization of armed groups, and the discourse that criminalizes Kurd’s form part of a broader strategy aimed at breaking the will of peoples to resist.
A clear sign of the moral and political decay of our time
Zeynep Umut said the events in Aleppo cannot be treated as an ordinary clash, and stressed that the targeting of a hospital in particular points not only to a military act but also to a moral and political rupture: “What happened in Aleppo on 6 January cannot be brushed aside as routine news of a clash. HTS attacks targeting Kurds, especially the targeting of a hospital, were not merely a military move; they were a clear sign of the moral and political decay of the era we are living in. The reality that the structure being circulated today under the name HTS is among the world’s bloodiest and most brutal organizations is not in dispute. The fact that groups that have made beheading a method, execution a form of politics, and fear a mode of governance can suddenly be presented as ‘legitimate actors’ is the real issue that must be confronted. Even more disturbing is that the Kurdish people, who resist this barbarism in the name of humanity, are simultaneously being criminalized with the label of ‘terrorism’ in the Turkish media.”
The real war is to break people’s will before fronts are formed
Umut said she does not view what happened as a mistake or a lack of information, but as the outcome of a deliberate choice. She said warfare today is not confined to the military sphere and that the primary aim of hegemonic powers is to break the will of peoples to resist: “This picture is not a mistake, a lack of information, or a communication failure; on the contrary, it is a conscious choice of our time. Today, hegemonic powers, such as the United States and Russia, do not rule solely through military superiority. The real war is being waged before fronts are even formed. This is called breaking the will. Modern war doctrines seek to convince peoples that resistance is meaningless. Threats of chemical weapons, high-tech missile simulations, artificial intelligence-supported war scenarios, and fear-mongering videos circulated on social media all convey the same message: ‘If you resist, you will be annihilated.’ This is less a military strategy than a technique of psychological annihilation. Defeat is imposed before it is experienced in reality; people therefore do not rise, do not speak out, and grow accustomed to what is happening.”
Not merely a defensive reflex
Zeynep Umut drew attention to the stance displayed by Kurds today, stressing that it cannot be read merely as a defensive reflex, but carries the meaning of a powerful rejection of the idea of submission imposed by the age.
Umut said, “This is precisely why the stance displayed by Kurds today is not merely a defensive reflex; it is a position that shatters the greatest lie of this age. We are speaking of a will that shows resistance is still possible against tanks, artillery, and unmanned aerial vehicles. We are speaking of a people who do not retreat despite threats of ‘you will be annihilated,’ and who do not submit in the face of scenarios of fear.”
Kurds have existed by resisting, not by submitting
Zeynep Umut said this resistance is not a momentary outburst, and pointed to the historical experience of the Kurds, noting that resistance represents a cultural and political continuity: “What we are talking about here is not a sudden surge of courage, but a culture of resistance built over time. Kurds have existed by resisting, not by submitting. They have grown stronger each time by rising again against denial, suppression, and attempts to invert reality. The reason they remain at such a constant target today lies precisely here.
The legitimization of HTS and the criminalization of Kurds cannot be read separately from this context. This is not chaos in which good and evil are blurred; it is a systematic attempt to break the culture of resistance. People who resist constitute not only a military but also an ideological threat.
The fact that these developments are so visible is not coincidental; it is the result of a strategy that expects us to grow accustomed to them, to normalize them, and to stop questioning. To dismiss the issue by saying ‘the world is already like this’ is the greatest form of complacency. It is precisely at this point that historical and theoretical reflection is needed more than ever.
Only then can we see how this distortion, presented to us as natural, has been constructed, and be reminded that will has not yet been fully subdued.”
Leave a Reply