The Second Middle East Youth Conference in Kobanê ended with the establishment of the Middle East Revolutionary Youth Council.

The Conference also issued a final declaration.

The three-day conference began on Wednesday and attracted delegates from Kurdistan as well as Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Libya, Armenia, Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia, Yemen, North Africa and Sudan. In total over 300 delegates attended the conference and voted for the establishment of the Middle East Revolutionary Youth Council.

The conference was held in Kobanê this year to comply with the decision taken at the First Conference, held in Amed, Northern Kurdistan in 2015.

The final statement of the conference, named “Young people towards a multicoloured and democratic Middle East” said:

“The city of Kobanê in Rojava was chosen as the conference venue. This choice had a special meaning, as Kobanê represents the resistance for all Middle East youth.

The realization of our conference in line with the idea and philosophy of Democratic Nation leader Abdullah Öcalan also created great opportunities for a productive and clear perspective on the future.

At the same time, debates held at this conference showed that fighting the status quo, and the religious, nationalist and sexist system is of great importance for the provision of a democratic, scientific and alternative life model.”

The document continued: “Our conference determined that all mechanisms of male-dominated mentality would be an obstacle to the freedom of society. It was emphasized that the democratic values ​​of the Middle East should be revived and a new policy should be built upon in order to achieve a democratic society.

The geography of the Middle East, the cradle of history and society, has continued to live in chaos and crisis, conflict and alienation created by the dominant status quo and anti-society forces.

As a result of this aggression, religious, sectarian, sexist and anti-society policies have transformed all the rich differences and colours of the Middle East into causes for discrimination and conflict.

Thus, the peoples of the Middle East fought against each other.”

These policies, which gained momentum at the beginning of the 20th century, added the statement, “reached a peak together with the Capitalist Modernity in the 21st century. Today, in the heart of the Middle East, there is a war in Kurdistan, which we call the third world war and is waged by the imperial powers and their collaborators. In particular, there is a great struggle between the capitalist system, and the system born in Northern and Eastern Syria which is the hope of the peoples of these regions. They tried to destroy this system using DAESH mercenaries, who have been exposed as yet another tool of the capitalist system.”

The statement added: “Although there are many democratic, socialist and revolutionary youth organizations in the Middle East, there is a need for a new organized and revolutionary structure.

For this reason, all the groups that attended this conference unanimously decided to establish a new front. This structure will have the nature of a Council.

It was decided that the invading Turkish state is an enemy for all of us. It has been decided to fight against the war activities of the Turkish state in the Middle East.”

Working to organise a World Youth Conference

On the other hand, in the long term, the Youth Conference decided to “start working on the organization of a World Youth Conference. It was also stated that the dialogue and the relationship with the people and organisations who did not participate in the conference should be developed.

We would like to thank Kobanê and its people for hosting this conference and for their hospitality."