The Syrian Democratic Council (MSD) released a statement marking the ninth anniversary of the Rojava Revolution that began on 19 July 2012.

The statement published by MSD on Sunday includes the following:

“This July 19th marks the ninth anniversary of the revolution that our people carried out in areas of north and east Syria on this date of the year 2012. The revolution began in Kobani, Afrin and northeastern Syria, and leaves today a clear national effect within the societal administrative system of the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria.

This revolution was not separated from the general Syrian revolutionary movement in mid-March 2011, and it represented greatly the culture and aspirations of the Syrian people for change and democratic transformation.

The July 19 revolution, which was a result of a theoretical perspective and a revolutionary philosophy, was also a serious attempt to save the people of Syria and prevent its movement from deviating as in the rest of Syria, where the control of regional and international agendas caused a division in Syrian society through the extremists of the opposition and the hardliners of the regime to change the course of the revolutionary movement into a general crisis in the whole of the Syrian social structure and the region.

A crisis that has prepared suitable conditions for the emergence of strange Islamic extremist organizations that don’t belong to the tolerant culture of the Syrian people. These organizations were defeated mainly by the Syrian Democratic Forces in alliance with the forces of the international coalition against terrorism.

We, as members of the Syrian Democratic Council, congratulate our Syrian people on the ninth anniversary of the July 19 revolution, which showed a clear vision of representing the goals and aspirations of the people of Syria through democratic change and achieving a political transition from a highly centralized system to a decentralized democratic system in the form of the Autonomous Administration. This model is completely formed as an effective model for UN Resolution 2254 aimed at achieving a democratic, non-sectarian political system, while at the same time combating the ideology of extremism and terrorist organizations that have afflicted our Syrian people.

We call on all components of our Syrian people and their national democratic forces to unite against all those who want our Syrian country to be divided or occupied, led by the Turkish regime, which has recently turned into a source of great danger against the peoples of Syria and the entire region. We affirm in word and deed that salvation from the crisis and ending the suffering of the Syrians will only be through dialogue and political negotiation between the forces of the national opposition and the authorities in Damascus.

We also offer our condolences to the families of the martyrs in all the Syrian regions from Quneitra and Hauran to Qamishli, as they defended the components of Syria against the terrorism of ISIS, Al-Nusra and others supported by the Ankara regime. We appreciate the sacrifices of the martyrs, especially the martyrs of the Syrian Democratic Forces, which present a national vision to all Syrians as the force to rely on despite what is being plotted against them.”