On Tuesday, the Turkish army and its Islamist mercenaries blew up the Ezidis’ Union Centre in Afrin. The center had previously been damaged by Turkish rocket fire. But now the entire building, including Ezidi books and a statue of Zarathustra, has been destroyed. Gulêcan Fer, women's representative of the Ezidis’ Union, answered ANF’s questions about this incident.

Can you briefly tell us whether you were already organized before the Rojava Revolution and what you did during the revolution?

As Ezidis we were already organized before the revolution. In 2007 we held our first congress in Aleppo. We had committees in Aleppo and there were executives of the Ezidis’ Union. So we were well positioned when the revolution began. We immediately intensified our work.

In 2012, we opened the first Ezidi House in the village of Basûfanê. In this house, after hundreds of years, we educated our children according to the Ezidi faith. The revolution was a great opportunity for us and we used it to do our work quickly and intensively.

How did you come to found the Ezidis’ Union?

In the canton of Afrin a committee for all minorities and religious communities was founded. We took part as Ezidis there. For the first time, the Ezidis were able to independently establish and organize educational units for their faith. In 2013 we founded the Ezidis’ Union in the center of Afrin. We held our first congress there. For the first time, we co-chaired and got organized in various commissions for women, law, education, youth, press and culture. These commissions also worked in the villages of Afrin, where there are a total of 22 Ezidi villages. Centers were opened in each of these villages. In the centers there were educational classes for children and women. In this way the Ezidi religion was recognized and could organize itself in the Democratic Autonomous system for the first time in the thousand-year-old history of the Kurds.

A statue of Zarathustra and a Lalesh dome were inside the Ezidi Center blown up in Afrin. What is the source of the hatred against these historical symbols?

The Zarathustra statue was the first one in the Middle East. A patriot in Kurzelê village had presented it to us. The Lalesh dome was similarly presented to us by a patriot from Qibarê village. When we look at the history, we see that all the massacres against the Kurds and Ezidis were perpetrated by the hand of the Ottomans. Now the Turkish state could not endure the organization of a common life by the ethnic groups and religious communities in Afrin. They attacked Afrin. They have committed massacres and want to destroy our entire history. That is why they directly razed our centers to the ground.

The YPG and YPJ forces resisted the attacks for 58 days. We too were part of this resistance. We have called on the world community to do something but everyone turned a blind eye, opening the way for Erdoğan. And Erdoğan continues his policy of destroying the unity of peoples, their cultures and their religions.

What are you doing now?

Like all people from Afrin we are currently resisting in Shehba. We will continue to resist. We opened a center in the Serdem refugee camp. We will not stop resisting until we can return to Afrin in freedom.