Syriac, Assyrian and Armenian peoples also have military forces in the region of North-East Syria which the Turkish state has been threatening since June 1, 2022. Since the beginning of the revolution, they have formed their own forces under the names of the Syriac Military Council, Assyrian Military Council and Nubar Ozanyan Armenian Brigade under the umbrella of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Syriac Military Council Spokesperson Matay Henna, Assyrian Khabur Defence Council Commander Nebil Werde and Nubar Ozanyan Armenian Brigade Commander Monte Melkonyan answered ANF's questions about their preparations for a possible Turkish invasion attack.

TURKEY POSES A DANGER TO EVERYONE

Syriac Military Council Spokesperson Matay Hanna stresses that the Turkish invasion threats and attacks pose a great danger to the Syriac people: "The Turkish state wants to launch a new military operation in the region. This poses great dangers for the peoples living in the region, especially for the Syriacs. All population groups live peacefully together here. The threat of attack endangers the lives of all people. Flight movements are being set in motion and infrastructure is being destroyed. We have already experienced something similar with the occupation of Serêkaniyê and Girê Spî and the disruption of the water supply to Hesekê. The values of society are being targeted, including places of faith."

WE WILL NOT LET THE INVADERS THROUGH

Preparations against possible invasion attacks continue, stated Matay Hanna: "As the Syriac Military Council, we are attentive in the face of a possible invasion and continue our preparations. If the Turkish state attacks as an occupying power, we will respond as Syriac fighters. We will not give the Turkish occupiers the opportunity to take further parts of north-eastern Syria. We will not allow that to happen. We have completed our military preparations to protect our people. As the Syriac Military Council, we will protect all the peoples of north-eastern Syria together with the Syrian Democratic Forces. We are ready to defend the achievements of the autonomous administration."

ASSYRIANS WANTED EXPELLED

Assyrian Khabur Defence Council Commander Nebil Werde pointed out that the threats of invasion are not new: "When the Turkish state let ISIS gangs attack the region, there was a great danger for the Assyrian people. The bombing of Assyrian villages is aimed at driving our people out. These threats of occupation are a danger to all peoples living in north-eastern Syria, including the Assyrians and Syriacs."

THE TURKISH STATE WILL SUFFER IRREVERSIBLE DEFEATS

Nabil Werde stressed that it is crucial to resist the extermination attacks and expulsion: "We have to resist the attacks of the occupiers in order to stay in the land where our ancestors lived. Since 1915, the Turkish state has continued this policy of attacks, extermination and expulsion until today. The Assyrians living in these regions have sworn to resist any kind of occupation. Assyrian and Syriac forces from the region are organised under the umbrella of the SDF. We are preparing together with the SDF for possible Turkish invasion attacks and will oppose them. Those who believe that the Turkish state can simply occupy the region are under an illusion. Our preparations are comprehensive. The Turkish state will be very disappointed and suffer irreversible defeats. We will resist to the last drop of our blood and protect our country.”

TURKISH HATRED TOWARDS PEOPLES GROWS

Nubar Ozanyan Armenian Brigade Commander Monte Melkonyan pointed out the objectives of the Turkish attacks and said: "The hostility, war and extermination policy of the Turkish state against Armenians and Kurds is strategic. From the Unity and Progress Committee [Ittihad ve Terakki, the driving force behind the Armenian genocide] through the period of the Kemalist government to the present day, there is a never-ending enmity that grows more violent with each passing day. We live in a time when the Turkish state has intensified its attacks since 1 June 2022. These attacks are not limited to north-eastern Syria. Armenians and Kurds in the Middle East and the Caucasus are also affected by extermination and extermination attacks. The dream of the forced Turkification of a vast territory continues. Today, they want to complete the genocide that they could not complete in the past, they want to realise the 'Turanian ideal'. The strategy of the Unity and Progress Committee continues today. A homogeneous Turkey is wanted to be created through the annihilation of the Armenians and Kurds."

TURKISH ATTACKS WILL FORCE ARMENIANS TO LEAVE THE REGION

Melkonyan remarked that peace and stability prevail in the regions threatened by the occupation: "People continue to live and work in security and peace. They keep their education, language and culture alive, develop and growing. How can peoples live in peace and security when they are threatened by howitzer and mortar attacks and intense reconnaissance? If the Turkish state's attacks continue, Armenians will have to leave the land they have lived in for centuries, the houses, churches and schools they have built with painstaking work and great hardship, and move inland where there are no attacks. Schools and churches are the usual places where the Armenian people meet. People will have to leave behind their places of faith and education, which they have created with great work and toil, and migrate to the interior of the country. After the genocide of 1915, they are wanted to be torn from the free land in north-eastern Syria that they cling to and want to live in. They will be subjected to more assimilation. The north-east of Syria is the land where the Armenian people live freely, in peace and security."

STRONGEST RESPONSE AGAINST ATTACKS

Pointing out that the Armenians are once again threatened with annihilation, Melkonyan continued: "The Armenian people live in Rojava as they are and as they want to. The people live their language, their culture and their faith freely. With the increase of mercenary attacks supported by the Turkish state, the Armenian people will cease to be themselves. It will disintegrate and be doomed to extinction by attacks and insecurity. It will lose all that it has worked for and accumulated in years of arduous struggle, all that it holds in its hands. The Armenian people are the ones who will be subjected to the most destructive and devastating attacks because of their language, their culture and their faith. They are the people who will lose the most."

Therefore, the Armenians are the ones who should resist the genocide the most, Melkonyan stated: "Therefore, they are the people who should resist the attacks of the Turkish state the most and the strongest. The Armenian people's memory of the genocide is alive; it demands that they protect their values of freedom the most. Armenians must protect and defend their land together with the peoples with whom they live. They have the right and they are forced to do so. Otherwise, there will be a second great genocide. We, the revolutionaries and pioneers of the Armenian people, will resist and fight against the attacks, just like Monte Melkonian and Nubar Ozanyan. We know that a society that cannot face the reality of its history is doomed to extinction."

REVOLUTION CONSIDERED A THREAT TO THEIR SURVIVAL

Melkonyan continued: “The fascist Turkish state decided to use the invasion attack as a threat during the last National Security Council (MGK) meeting. The Turkish state has always considered fundamental freedoms and rights a threat to its security. Fascism cannot live without its enemies. Therefore, Turkey has denied the revolution in North-East Syria under the leadership of the Kurdish Freedom Movement. Fascism sees a democratic system as dangerous for its own survival. The invasion attack is not only directed against the peoples of the occupied regions. It will also militarize society in Turkey and will be a useful tool to prevent dissenting opinions by keeping the feelings of restlessness and fear alive. The AKP-MHP fascism also wants to use this tool to the fullest.”

WE DEFEND OUR OWN LANDS

Melkonyan added: “The Nubar Ozanyan Armenian Brigade has designed its structure against the invasion attacks of the Turkish state since its establishment. It has completed its preparations by deploying forces to the front lines against a possible invasion attack. Our brigade is a military organization that is a component of the SDF. We, as Armenians, defend our own lands on the front lines together with the Assyrians, Syriacs, Arabs and Kurds. This is a war between fascism and peoples. We are aware that our liberation can be achieved through a joint struggle against fascism.”