Notes from Rojava

"A photo frame hanging on the wall of every house you enter in this land tells you the story of anonymous heroes and how this war was actually won…"

Much has changed on Syrian soil since the civil war began in January 2011.

That day the regime had lost power and seemed to be falling a part but thanks to its main supporters Iran and Russia is still on its feet.

The 'opposition groups', which were put forward with the allegation of change and later turned into a curse of the regional powers, tried to survive in the political arena, but now they have almost disappeared.

Apart from the Baath regime or jihadist gangs imposed on the Syrian people, there is another alternative that makes its existence accepted through the victories it has won on the battlefield: the Kurds' pioneering North-East Syria Autonomous Administration... 

The North-East Syria Autonomous Administration which is building a future of the peoples who are tired of the capitalist wall we live in, today controls 32 percent of the Syrian territory.

Everyone who has followed how the Rojava Revolution came about since the beginning, 8 years ago, will know a little, but we set out to listen to what is actually happening in this land and witness the current situation.

[...] We had to do a long a perilous journey, but in the end we are in Rojava.

When looking for an answer to the question of what we will encounter, the faces we meet at the border are smiling faces like these we meet wherever we go and the 'Hello' turning into a warm embrace which shake off the fatigue of the journey. 

During the darkness of the night you see the face full of hope in a tea filled with mutual hope which makes you feel the spirit of revolution…

Now you're in that land, that has given 11 thousand martyrs. You will meet their smiling faces in every street, in every city, in every public order spots… Then you will understand that the land which someone has difficulty in naming is the land of those who fell for humanity…

When traveling to Dêrik, Rimêlan, Qamişlo and Hesekê and many centres of resistance, I asked Mahir Huso, who was with me all the time about  the unity of people created in Rojava and the relentless war against ISIS.

"If we did not have faith and will, the name of this people would not be mentioned in these lands today", he began.

Recalling that they did not even mention the name Kurds, as Kurdish identity was not recognized in these lands, he continued: “The regime created such a fear that the people living here had no choice but to fall in love with their executioner. They instilled a centuries-old awareness that a Kurdish or other people minority would never stande a chance to be equal to Arabs. [...]

They forced the weak to applaud the strong even though he did not like him. When we came to 2011 with the effect of this understanding, a moral and social collapse was created in these lands. People had no hope for the future left."

WE HAVE CHANGED THE PREVIOUS UNDERSTANDING

"Yes, first of all, we changed this understanding. [...] we were able to show that everyone has the chance to live equal and free in these lands. Today, they ask how this unity was achieved, how it came here. We were able to understand that every human being in this region is the real owner of this land and that he had the option to live freely without submitting to anyone. These people, who fought without any interest, had only demands: to live in the land without masters, free and equal. It was the option of living in a free and equal conditions, which would have a Kurdish, an Arab, an Assyrian youth and others in the same ranks fighting for the same purpose."

FIGHT BETWEEN TWO IDEOLOGIES

When I talked about the war against ISIS, he says: "Fighting against ISIS was never easy. When the worst minded men in the world gathered around a dark thought and killed in this land, they came to die. In this land, there was a war fought by two ideologies. ISIS imposed an out-of-date dark thought on this land, and when it was time to do so, risked death. The force against them was the force who defended light against darkness, those who wanted to protect its land, and went to death without blinking for the people and the values ​​they defended. It was a handful of faithful and willful young people, despite the limited means at their disposal that defeated the dark thought that scared the world. A terror organisation not even states dared to stand against."

ISIS WAS DEFEATED IN KOBANÊ

"No one should say 'we defeated ISIS', the real will that defeated ISIS was in Kobanê. Everyone sat in their seats during the days of the resistance of Kobanê and watched the resistance as if they were watching a war film. If we had not resisted and we had not proved that we could defeat ISIS in Kobanê, they would have been content to follow this resistance without taking action.

We gave 11 thousand martyrs in this war and showed a resistance that no one could even imagine. We entered the capital of those who gave fear to the world, and then brought them to an end in this land.

A photo frame hanging on the wall of every house you enter in this land and the story of anonymous heroes tell the story of how this war was won."