The Turkish state is pursuing a policy of feminicide and genocide against the Kurdish people in occupied Afrin, says Cihan Xidro: "The attack on the HDP and the murder of Deniz Poyraz are no different from the attacks that the Turkish state has been carrying out with paramilitary groups in Rojava since 2012. It is also not independent of what has been happening in Afrin since March 2018."

Cihan Xidro is chairwoman of the Women's Council in the Autonomous Administration of North-East Syria. She spoke to ANF about the deadly June 17 attack on the HDP headquarters in Izmir. She expressed her condolences to the Poyraz family, the HDP and the Kurdish people on behalf of the women and peoples in the Northeast Syrian Autonomous Region, saying, "Deniz Poyraz has been murdered in a fascist attack with a state background. We feel great sorrow because of this. Unfortunately, this is not the first case of this kind and the current policy of the government and the state show that it will not be the last either. The murderer enters the HDP building, which is under 24-hour police surveillance, relaxed. For a long time, no one does anything. After the murder of Deniz Poyraz, the police do not even consider it necessary to handcuff the perpetrator. On the contrary, Deniz's mother and the HDP members are surrounded by the police. The same police who interrogate Kurdish people, youths, women, HDP members for days, present the murderer Onur Gencer to the arresting judge at lightning speed. Actually, everything points to the actual perpetrators."

Part of the genocide against the Kurdish people

Cihan Xidro points out that the AKP/MHP government is waging war against the Kurdish people and all democratic forces. This war is nothing new, but it is becoming increasingly violent, she says. Cihan Xidro describes the murder of Deniz Poyraz as part of the genocidal policy implemented by the Turkish in the north, south and west of Kurdistan, state starting with the prison island of Imrali:

"Since April 2015, the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan has been aggravated. In the period of the June 7, 2015 parliamentary elections and afterwards, ISIS was used for attacks on HDP buildings. Bombings at rallies were intended to intimidate the HDP electorate. In recent years, HDP co-chairs, deputies, mayors and ordinary members have been arrested on flimsy grounds. Massive attacks on the guerrillas have been taking place again since July 24, 2015. All of these attacks have become occupation attacks. Currently, an invasion is underway in Avashin, Zap and Metina.

Turkey used proxy forces such as the FSA, al-Nusra, and ISIS for its attacks on Rojava between 2012 and 2016. Starting in 2016, it brought these forces to its side and entered Jarablus and Shehba. It occupied Afrin and Serêkaniyê. In all these areas, genocide is being committed against the Kurds. In Turkey, Islamists responsible for the death of thousands of people are sentenced to house arrest, but the HDP is accused in the Kobanê trial. The HDP entered parliament with the votes of the Kurdish people and democratic circles in Turkey and is under massive attack. These attacks must be understood as a whole and repelled accordingly."

"Islamists have been unleashed on Rojava"

Cihan Xidro refers to the photos that the murderer Onur Gencer published on social media showing him armed in Syria: "We are living witnesses of what these paramilitary forces of Turkey have done in Syria and Rojava. From the beginning, it was the Turkish state that unleashed Islamist factions like the FSA, al-Nusra and ISIS on us. Because of what we experienced ourselves in Syria, we know the contract killer Onur Gencer and the Turkish state behind him very well."

As the photos he published show, Onur Gencer was obviously part of Turkey's paramilitary forces in Syria. Cihan Xidro tells how she herself experienced the attacks of these groups: "In 2012 and 2013, Islamist groups such as the Al-Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham or Liwa al-Fatih were unleashed upon us Kurds. I witnessed this action by Turkey in the region between Azaz and al-Bab. The Turkish intelligence officers arrived and held meetings with the armed groups in mosques. They then had these groups attack the Kurds. In 2013, Turkey brought 21 of these gangs together in one operations center. Til Eran and Til Hasil were first to be attacked on July 27, 2013. Fifty people were massacred in front of their relatives. Many of them were women and children. 400 people were abducted. Dozens of them were women who are still missing today. During the same period, attacks took place on al-Bab, Azaz and Jarablus, as well as on families in Girê Spî, Raqqa and Manbij. In the FSA attacks, the motto was that Kurdish property, Kurdish lives and Kurdish women were outlawed. I saw with my own eyes how Turkish intelligence officers were first in the FSA and later all became ISIS and attacked us. Kurds have been killed by Turkey's paramilitary forces and Islamist gangs since 2013. Women have been murdered or forcibly abducted. Our houses have been looted, our villages razed to the ground."

"The attacks on Rojava and the HDP have the same background"

After the attacks by gangs controlled by the Turkish state, Cihan Xidro moved to Afrin. At the time, the place was considered a city of women and democracy. Due to the invasion launched on January 20, 2018, and the Turkish occupation, Afrin has since become a center of feminicide and genocide against the Kurdish people, says the chairwoman of the Women's Council of the Autonomous Administration. In terms of its structure, she says, the HDP is a democratic women's party that advocates a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question. The attack on the HDP was therefore carried out for the same reason as the invasion of Afrin and other parts of Rojava, she said: "There was a democratic system in Afrin. It was a Kurdish city that was considered the democratic center of all peoples and women. That is why it was the focus of attacks by the Turkish state and the gangs it controlled. On January 20, 2018, thousands of soldiers and Islamist mercenaries attacked with fighter jets and tanks. I was there until the last day. On March 18, Afrin was completely occupied and we just managed to save ourselves.

In Afrin, Kurds are still being murdered and expelled today. Women are killed, abducted and raped. Actually, the actions in Afrin show concretely what the Turkish state wants to do to all Kurds and women. In Afrin, the body of YPJ fighter Barin Kobanê was desecrated. During the occupation of Girê Spî and Serêkaniyê, Hevrîn Xelef was brutally murdered by Turkey's gangs. The Turkish state still wants to expand its occupation zone and especially politically active women are threatened. The murder of Deniz, like the murders of other women friends, is at the same time a racist state massacre and a feminicide. The system that wants to destroy the Kurds also equally wants to destroy the strong-willed attitude of women."

"We must fight together"

Cihan Xidro expects the Turkish state's attacks on Kurds in all areas to become more violent. "As Kurdish people and as women, we must stand in solidarity with each other. No one should think that it has nothing to do with him or her when the Kurds are attacked in the mountains, in Turkey or in Syria. We have had plenty of experience on this issue. The killer is targeting all Kurds. Accordingly, we must proceed. We must stick together and defend ourselves and our future together," said the chairwoman of the Women's Council in the Autonomous Administration of North-East Syria.