KJK calls for solidarity with Rojava, Iran

The Coordination of the KJK issued a statement on the attacks by mercenaries of the interim government on the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Ashrafieh, and Bani Zaid in Aleppo, the resistance waged by the people of Iran and Eastern Kurdistan, and the massacres committed by the Iranian authorities.

The statement read:

“We strongly condemn the attacks that targeted the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh, during which seven of our people were martyred and more than fifty others were injured. We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the martyrs and salute the steadfastness of the people of Sheikh Maqsoud.

The residents of Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, home to more than 220,000 Kurds, have defended their land through self-defense since the beginning of the attacks in 2011. They resisted within the framework of legitimate self-defense and preserved their lives according to their own will. For more than a decade, they participated in the defense of Aleppo side by side with its people against all extremist armed groups, and they never took part in any action against the Syrian government. Yet the Syrian interim government has responded to the desire of the residents of Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud to live together by imposing a siege, subjecting them to hunger and cold, and bombing their most basic living facilities, including hospitals.

Despite all the efforts made by the people of Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud for peaceful coexistence, the recent and escalating attacks carried out by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham are an extension of the attacks it launched against Alawites and Druze. These attacks represent an assault on the achievements of the Kurdish people in particular, and on women, as well as on all religions and peoples in Syria.

At a time when democratic solutions are being discussed in Turkey and Northern Kurdistan, these attacks—instigated by the Turkish state and carried out by mercenaries of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham—harm the Turkish people just as they harm the Syrian people. This policy of war, which exposes Turkey to attacks by ISIS mercenaries, will cause Turkey heavy losses.

The Syrian interim government, which imposes a life of submission and servitude on our people, should know that by committing these massacres—as if it has forgotten the reasons for the fall of the repressive Baath regime—it is in fact paving the way for its own end. The only path forward for Syria, as Leader Apo has repeatedly emphasized, is a democratic Syria. The nation-state model imposed on Syria—a homeland of diverse peoples, cultures, languages, and beliefs—as a suffocating constraint, will be the end of the Syrian interim government.

Amid a war that has lasted 15 years, embracing the resistance of women and the Kurdish people who have struggled for a democratic Syria will constitute the greatest blow to the dreams of reactionary mercenaries.

On the other hand, we salute the popular uprising that began on 28 December in Eastern Kurdistan and Iran, which has now entered its second week and spread to 27 cities and 88 districts, particularly in Ilam, Lorestan, and Kermanshah. We extend our sincere condolences to the families of the martyrs who were killed in the struggle for a dignified life. As the resistance—initiated by labor union strikes—continues to grow stronger with slogans of justice, law, and freedom, we renew our solidarity with the just struggle of the Kurdish, Persian, Baluchi, and Azeri peoples. It is clear today that the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ resistance, which the Iranian regime claims to have suppressed, has not ended but has grown stronger, paving the way for new forms of resistance. The slogan ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ has become a philosophy and a fundamental principle of life for women and peoples.”

a.k

ANHA