Ahmed Sheikho: They wanted to hit revolution by committing Kobanî's massacre

JUMA MUHAMMAD – ZANA SIDI / KOBANI

The statements of the co-chair of Democratic Society Movement Council in Kobanî canton Ahmad Sheikho were made in an interview with ANHA agency, to talk about the 25 June massacre committed by IS mercenaries in Kobanî and Burkh Batan village, where today marks the third anniversary of it.

The following is the text of the interview:

At the outset, we thank you for allowing this dialogue to take place. Let us begin with the following question: Many countries and dictatorships resort to the policy of committing massacres against the peoples opposing them. How do you see this policy and what is your assessment of it?

We also thank you because you granted us the opportunity to clarify our views. Throughout history, massacres have been committed against many peoples, especially the Kurdish people. What are massacres, how were they committed and why, if we go back to history and look for answers to these questions we will reveal a lot of things, especially if we are in a country like Kurdistan, known for its wealth and beauty, where the enemy who occupied this land seeks to use all possible means only to prevent the people from obtaining free will and freedom.

One of the most horrific aspects is massacres. Of course, if the dominators see that the methods they use are unable to maintain their existence, they will resort to the use of such methods, so the history of Kurdistan is full of massacres, the more our people rise and breathe the air of freedom and begin to search for its true identity, the more the enemy mercilessly targets them by the massacres.

The brutality of the occupiers of Kurdistan in all its four parts, known through the Kurdish people, began from the era of Median Empire to Persians, Ottomans, modern Turkey and the periods of Saddam Hussein, in all these periods the rulers changed a lot, but the policy that was intended to suppress the people was one.

Sheikho recalled what Turkish journalist Mohammad Ali Miran said ‘”f the liberation Movement did not show up for another ten years in Bakur Kurdistan, the goals of Ataturk would be realized, we have buried the cause of the Kurdish people in the mountains of Dêrsim.” That is what Atatürk said.

The idea became clear here, and since we came to talk about Turkish politics, which is considered the most oppressive country for the Kurdish people, why did Turkey adopt a policy of massacres against the Kurdish people?

If we go back to the historical background and the Turkish historical heritage that is the Ottoman heritage, everyone knows that the Ottoman expansion was only by the sword, the sword was one of the massacres' tools which was used to rob the will of a people and move it as desired by a certain party.

But after the formation of a level of awareness among the peoples enslaved in the area, which began to increase the movement demanding their rights and freedom, the Ottomans began to collapse until they reached the borders of the current Turkish state, and then persons appeared aiming to preserve the Ottoman heritage, Atatürk and others, used many dirty methods to achieve their goal, and one of these methods was to deceive the Kurdish people and involve them in the council of state administration and matching the Kurds until they have controlled this land to begin to deny the Kurds and commit massacres against them because they were aware that the greatest force in the area are the Kurds who can form a danger to their presence, when they reach a point where they see the need to get their freedom, the Kurds have mountains, they are courageous and their numbers are large, so they will be the vanguard of the rest of the peoples.

They repeated the deeds of their Ottoman ancestors and used force and murder to preserve their power, they wanted to give a message to the rest of the people by committing massacres against the Kurdish people so that other peoples could not revolt and demand their freedom.

* Since we came very close to the axis of our dialogue, to talk about the massacre of Kobanî; taking into account the political and military situation in the area, in your opinion what was the purpose of that massacre?

The massacre was not only in Kobanî, but the massacre of Kobanî was a continuation of the Şengal massacre that was committed before Kobani’s massacre. Of course, these massacres are not far from the political situation, the obscurantist powers that have crossed to the Middle East under the name of ISIS, some can still be seen it in their current form (Daesh), but we said at the beginning and still believe that behind this black cloak many black forces especially the forces occupying Kurdistan have been hidden.

As we have said in our talk, that country has been expanded by the sword and where a lot of massacres have been committed, now again appeared that brutality, which extends throughout history with a personality in the 21st century

So you say that Turkey had a hand in this massacre?

This is not only the massacre, let me clarify the conditions that preceded the massacre, when ISIS have emerged in this area, the objectives of the Turkish state and all the countries that occupy Kurdistan sought to eliminate Kurdish efforts for liberation under the leadership of the Freedom Movement, it began to resonate in the international community. They wanted to strike a blow at this revolution in its first steps in order to impede it. So they tried several examples, such as inciting the mercenary gangs and Jabhit al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham mercenaries to attack this revolution and the gains of the Kurdish people and all the peoples of the area, but they could not, so resorted to ISIS later.

The emergence of ISIS in this area and with all this force and his direction to areas such as Kobanî and Şengal was not a coincidence, these were the first steps of the massacre, where the great massacre began; the first in Şengal and then Kobanî.

The factors that helped ISIS to cross into this area were its brutal methods such as beheading, blowing up cars and killing innocent people, this is similar to the Ottomans history, and if this proves something, it indicates and confirms the existence of the ideological and intellectual link between the two.

The parties that stood behind this massacre and supported it clearly and we know who to be, this is not hidden...

*Who do you mean?

The Turkish state and Erdogan, who said during the battle of Kobanî at all times that Kobanî has fallen and all the forces occupying Kurdistan have the benefit and interest of weakening the Kurds and reduce the gains that the people were achieving, this massacre has been committed by everyone, the level of the presence of some in this massacre may be less, but in the end everyone is a partner, the Turkish state, which to this day has ISIS and oriented them towards Rojava areas

* After the massacre and as you follow the social conditions; how was the impact of the massacre on the community in Kobanî?

Like it or not, there is an impact, there was a negative and positive effect. On the negative side, the target of the enemy was not the killing of 250 people, but the objective was to empty Kubanî and reduce the impact of the gains achieved, and to deprive the morale and the will of the people and therefore can not step forward and express themselves and strive for their freedom. The other goal was to strike at the ever-growing forces and stop the liberation campaigns they were leading.

Many families were hurt and many remained orphans, life stopped for several days in Kobanî, where innocent people lost their lives, to this day, and some families continue to suffer from the impact of the massacre, which was never taken into account and took place on a treacherous night.

There have been positive aspects of the massacre; the people have turned around and blocked the attempts to expand the massacre, more importantly, the Turkish state's goals, which wanted to steer the troops back towards Kobanî and organize a second major campaign against it, were not achieved.

So you say that the massacre did not achieve its objectives in full?

It did not achieve their goals, yes. On the contrary, the massacre turned into a motive for taking greater steps in retaliation for the martyrs of the massacre, revenge has already been taken for them and continues to this day.

In your opinion, what are the factors that did not help to achieve the goals of the massacre?

Many factors, let us go back a bit, specifically at the start of Rojava revolution, there was instructions for the leader Abdullah Ocalan, saying that the unorganized society could not protect itself or do anything else, so, above all, we saw the need to organize society.

*Regardless of the attempts of permanent enemies to target the Kurdish people. Observers believe that weakness in the security aspect of your easy task of the perpetrators of the massacre, how do you comment on this?

We mentioned in our conversation that the shortcomings were many, but that particular night and the way the enemy came, such operations are taking place in Europe and America and all the places where billions are spent to strengthen the security forces, and recently we have seen several terrorist operations in Europe itself.

The group of Asayîş members which chased the IS intruders, had there been weaknesses, without that group and its members (6) who martyred, the victims of the massacre could have been doulbed, but it can be said that at that time was observed a kind of irresponsibility in the protection committees in neighborhoods because they did not expect such an attack, but if we say that a security vulnerability was present contributing to the massacre, I expect it to be far from the truth.

What to do if there are people who have prepared themselves for death, you can reduce the spread of this phenomenon but you will not be able to face it.

But we must work to strengthen our protection system more, this is the truth.

*Let us stop at this point, what should be done to avoid a similar scenario to 25 June massacre?

Immediately after the massacre, we started with these steps, we went to the councils and the communes and we formed our internal protection committees and the fundamental protection forces that are now present in every neighborhood. In addition, we have overcome the problem of lack of weapons and wireless communication devices.

The cooperation that we are witnessing today between the security forces and the citizens confirms that there are no gaps exploited by the enemy to repeat the massacre.

* We have reached the end of our dialogue, if you have a last word you would like to give to the community in Kobanî by the anniversary of the massacre?

We offer our deepest condolences to the martyrs’ families of the massacre, we affirm that revenge is done on a daily basis, and we say that it is necessary to draw lessons from the massacre and strengthen the protection system in our areas, and not to wait for outside forces to protect us, every person must be a security element, and we have to intervene if we see that action has been put at risk to endanger our people.

H/S

ANHA