The Erzincan branch of the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) organised a panel on the ‘Rojava Revolution’ yesterday. Arzu Demir, a reporter and editor with ANF, said: “The revolution has first of all changed the lives of women.”
The Erzincan branch of the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) organised a panel on the ‘Rojava Revolution’ yesterday. Arzu Demir, a reporter and editor with ANF, said: “The revolution has first of all changed the lives of women.”
Arzu Demir added that the revolution had not only changed the lives of women, but had also created the mechanisms to enable women to gain whatever they could from the revolution and from life.
The panel, entitled the Rojava Revolution, was organised by the Erzincan branch of the ESP, and was attended by around 120 people, including HDP Erzincan parliamentary candidates Erol Ağdaş and Fatma Turan.
The panel began with a minute’s silence for those who have lost their lives in the revolution in Rojava. Then journalist Arzu Demir recalled Suphi Nejat Ağırnaslı, Sibel Bulut, Emre Aslan, Jinda Ronahi and Canda Welat who died fighting in Rojava. Demir said the Syrian regime had prevented the people of Rojava expressing themselves politically, and left them impoverished.
Demir said Rojava had been nourished by the experience of the Kurdish freedom movement’s struggle against Turkish colonialism and that when the imperialists had intervened to subvert the popular uprising in Syria, Rojava opted for a third way and began to construct a new life.
She added that this new life was being built on the basis of equality between women and men, emphasising that the revolution in Rojava was a women’s revolution, with women involved at all levels.
Demir said that women’s right to self-defence was enshrined in the constitution in Rojava and was being implemented. “There are women’s cooperatives, women’s academies and many women’s institutions that guarantee the rights of women. Hence the revolution in Rojava is a women’s revolution,” she added.
Demir also dwelt on the economy and the system of justice in Rojava, adding that the revolution was still threatened by gangs such as ISIS. She added that the Turkish revolutionary movement should think about how it could sustain solidarity with the revolution.
Demir concluded her presentation by saying that the AKP’s policy towards Rojava had not changed and that the embargo on Rojava should be lifted and the border gates opened. Demir then answered questions from the audience.
