How did Sheikh Maqsoud's resistance triumph

The resistance of Sheikh Maqsoud proved the feasibility of the leader Abdullah Ocalan's visions in resolving the crises afflicting the region in general and the victory of the people's resistance in the face of attempts at ethnic, cultural and physical genocide. Adherence to the democratic nation's project, self-defense and self-reliance to curb all invaders, and produce a model of peaceful co-existence in a besieged neighborhood within Aleppo city.

With the start of the Syrian revolution, Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood was subject to attacks by both the Damascus government and the mercenaries of the Turkish occupation army over a period of 5 years, starting from 2012 and ending with the liberation of the eastern neighborhoods in Aleppo in 2017.

What led Sheikh Maqsoud to victory?

Revolutionary people's war

  People's self-defense is an essential and strategic part of the people's revolutionary war by administering society itself without the need for the institution of the state, as it is an obstacle to the spirit of cooperation, solidarity and co-existence between individuals, groups and different cultures within the social framework.

  The leader Abdullah Ocalan clarified in his book "The Sociology of Freedom" and the volume "Democratic Middle East" the issue of legitimate self-defense of the Kurdish people and the peoples of the region who are facing cultural, moral and political invasion that intensified at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

The leader Ocalan described this attack which reached deep levels as a deadly cancer plaguing this region and threatening its existence completely.

According to the assessment of leader Ocalan in his pleadings of "Democratic Society Manifesto," the Kurdish and Middle Eastern society is tasked with repelling this historically pathological mentality and alien to it through legitimate self-defense mechanisms.

From this standpoint, the leader Ocalan summarized the people's self-defense mechanism in the project of "The Democratic Autonomous Administration" as a social, democratic, communal, pluralistic, liberal alternative in the issue of diversity of cultures and co-existing languages ​​as an alternative to the nation-state system.

Therefore, freedom according to the philosophy of the leader Ocalan is achieved by managing the society itself by itself and solving all its problems with its strength, will, vitality and creativity.

The revolutionary movement

A political and revolutionary movement (Kurdistan Freedom Movement) has spread in Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods, representing them and working to achieve their ambition to build a democratic society based on the philosophy of the leader Abdullah Ocalan.

The Kurdistan Liberation Movement was launched for the first time among the Kurdish people first in this neighborhood in Aleppo, and they accepted this thought, joined it, and sided with the movement against all the policies and methods that the Syrian government used to suppress it.

These neighborhoods introduced themselves as "The Leader's Neighborhood," so they did not think for a moment to retreat from their revolutionary principle and contributed to their struggle with the movement. The leader was like the sun of freedom, proving their existence by saying: "If we want to be free, we must get to know the ideology of the leader Abdullah Ocalan."

Whoever forgets their past loses their present

Suad Hassen, one of the women who participated in the resistance in Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods indicated that the legacy of the struggle presented by the people decades ago appeared in the July 19^th Revolution, adopting the ideas of the leader Ocalan. The protection of ideas was crystallized within the principle "as much as we defend the ideas of the leader Ocalan, we defend our freedom."

In this regard, she said: "If we were not organized, we would not have shown such resistance which began with the involvement of the people. We did not have any military forces or even heavy weapons, but we broke the enemies' attacks with our will."

Suad likened the revolution to a wedding because they love freedom. With the drums of war, hundreds of young men and women from the neighborhood met the public alarm's call to protect their neighborhoods.

The people of Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood quoted the slogan of their resistance after the leader Abdullah Ocalan said: "Kurdistan is colonized," so they said "Resistance is life" based on the book "Resistance Is Life," influenced by the resistance of prisons and its pioneer, the martyr Mazloum Dogan." Suad says in this regard: "We established these ideas among the people as a spirit in their souls, so the resistance that began within these neighborhoods there was really people's revolutionary war."

Suad recalls events from the people's resistance during the siege of the neighborhood by the Syrian government and the mercenaries of the Turkish occupation, describing it as a prison with a single outlet towards the sky, and despite their being exposed to constant bombardment and attacks by the besieging parties, the people staged a great resistance with high morale.

Suad also indicated that this war was a test for the people of the neighborhood to assess the extent of their connection to the thought of the leader Ocalan and their protection of his ideas, so they showed the strength of the revolutionary people and supported them on the fronts to achieve victory in this war that was imposed on them.

Suad ended her speech by confirming that the secret of the victory of the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood resistance stems from the ideology of the leader Abdullah Ocalan and the sacred values of the martyrs, noting, "If you do not have the strength and principles, you cannot resist."

Peoples' fraternity

The spirit of peoples' fraternity and co-existence emerged among the folds of the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood resistance to be among the foundations of escalating struggle, achieving freedom and social justice.

After the martyrdom of the only surgeon in the neighborhood Dr. Shahed al-Jumyan from the Arab component, born in Deir ez-Zor, a commune was opened in his name in Ashrafieh neighborhood after its liberation.

Meri Shebli from the Arab component believed in the peoples' fraternity project during his participation in the resistance, and indicated that this neighborhood enjoys cultural and religious diversity, through which brotherhood of peoples is highlighted.

During the Turkish mercenaries' attacks on the neighborhood, they wanted to sow discord among the components of the neighborhood with flimsy pretexts to strike the brotherhood of peoples project under many names, which Meri described as the "intrigue" plot.

Regarding the secret of victory, Shebli said: "We did not have heavy weapons or tanks, while the mercenaries who attacked us with Turkish support possessed all modern weapons, but we won with the will of our people. We defended ourselves with a rifle armed with strong will."

He added: "When we get armed and announced the general alarm in the neighborhood, we knew that the danger was coming and would continue, so the segments of society, women and men, along with the youth and the elderly joined hands as fighters on the front lines."

The will of the people is indomitable

Meri added: "The resistance is a real life. We learned these principles based on the will of the indomitable peoples, and we triumphed by the will of all components of our people because they are a people that demand freedom, with this national cohesion, we were able to achieve victory and now work in Sheikh Maqsoud as an administration in which all segments of society participate to provide security and safety."

Shebli emphasized that they derive their ideas from the project of the peoples' fraternity and co-existence, and in this regard, he said: "The greatest merit of the leader Abdullah Ocalan in this matter is if we look into the depth of reality, neither the Syrian state has a project for the Syrian people nor the worn out opposition called the coalition, so their project is brief in fighting over positions and seizing power, but our project as a democratic nation and brotherhood of peoples is the project that we follow and defend, and will continue until it is realized."

Beehive

The difficulties and obligations imposed on the people of the neighborhood were not easy, but the spirit of struggle and responsibility was present within them, and they were trained to deal with what was imposed on them, so they were in love with weapons except for the sake of peace.

The entire society has turned into a revolutionary group organized as a beehive; one of its first tasks are to defend and organize the people according to the imposed conditions of war, using the sacrificed martyrs as an example for them to pursue their resistance.

The women of the neighborhood had a pioneering role, so the spark of freedom started in Sheikh Maqsoud with the martyrdom of the struggler Guleh Salmo. From there, women took upon themselves the responsibility to protect the neighborhood by joining the ranks of the Women Protection Units and forming the first battalion within the Women – Community Protection Forces who bore the name of the martyr Kuleh Salmo.

They also participated in preparing food and delivering it to their children on the fronts, in addition to supporting medical teams in treating the wounded with the possibilities available to them, and sorting the families in the safe basements to protect them.

Despite all the circumstances, education did not stop, rather, some of its provisions were changed to suit the stage it is going through, so schools have been replaced by basements to continue learning their mother tongue, and they have accepted to live dark nights without electricity and spend their cold winter by burning everything that lightens fire.

The gains achieved by resistance

The revolutionary spirit that was planted within the people of the neighborhood contributed greatly to their drive towards achieving gains. With the beginning of the spark of the revolution, they preserved the cultures of the society by opening the first center for culture and art at the beginning of 2012.

Attention to the importance of preserving the mother tongue and preventing its extinction resulted in the opening of the first centers for teaching the mother tongue in the city of Aleppo under the name of the Kurdish Language Institution SZK.

After the liberation of the neighborhood from the attacks, many popular institutions and councils were opened, and people became given leadership, service, and organizing themselves by forming the neighborhood communes.

In addition to the work to open centers that seek to improve service conditions, such as the People's Municipality and the Health Council by opening a hospital and clinics within the three neighborhoods, in addition to many institutions that provide the needs of society in all economic, social, security, cultural and even religious fields.

In this regard, the Co-chair of the General Council in Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods Mohamed Sheikho said: "The people achieved their popular gains after their sons and daughters made significant sacrifices, and declared victory over all the policies that conspired against them, and the fruit of this resistance lies in the co-existence of all segments of society and the organization and management of the people for themselves."

D.H

ANHA