The Kurdistan Women’s Communities (KJK) Committee on Foreign Relations and Alliances released a statement condemning the murder of Kurdish female activist Nagihan Akarsel in Sulaymaniyah city of southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq) earlier today.

The KJK statement calling for the organization of common struggle on a higher level includes the following:

“We learned with great rage about the assassination of Nagihan Akarsel, a member of Jineoloji Academy and longtime activist of the Kurdistan Women’s Liberation Movement. Her murder is one of a series of targeted killings of leading figures of the women’s revolution in Kurdistan by the fascist Turkish state.

Nagihan Akarsel was brutally killed this morning in the city of Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdish Region of Iraq when leaving her home. As a longtime journalist, writer, militant  and member of Jineoloji (‘Science of Woman and Life’) Academy, she was well known within Kurdish society as well as among women. She was looking back on nearly 3 decades of incessant struggle and resistance, putting the philosophy of Jin, Jiyan, Azadî (Woman, Life, Freedom) continuously into practice.

The recent killing of Nagihan Akarsel does not constitute an individual case. For almost exactly 10 years, the fascist and misogynist Turkish state has been trying to stop the Women’s Revolution in Kurdistan by assassinating its leading militants. In this sense, we can see a clear link between the Paris massacre on 9 January 2012, targeting Sakine Cansız, the Kobanê massacre of 23 June 2020, killing 3 members of the Rojava women’s movement, and most recently the assassination of our comrade Nagihan Akarsel.

The fascist Turkish state is well aware of the leading role of the organized strength of women within the Kurdish freedom movement. Therefore, in order to destroy our resistance, break our revolutionary will and liquidate our liberation struggle, it systematically targets leading women of our movement.

Furthermore, the murder of Nagihan Akarsel lines up with a series of assassinations by the Turkish intelligence in Southern (Iraqi) Kurdistan within the last year, which resulted in the death of 4 members and supporters of the Freedom Movement. All these killings happened in the city of Sulaymaniyah, which puts the officials of the provincial administration as well as the Kurdistan Regional Government in charge. We do not accept that the intelligence of the anti-Kurdish Turkish state can use Kurdish-controlled soil for its dirty plans and brutal killings. We expect the provincial administration of Sulaymaniyah to urgently take all necessary measures to protect the safety of Kurds in Kurdistan and arrest the perpetrators. This in turn means preventing all kinds of dirty activities by the fascist Turkish state within the borders of Southern Kurdistan.

If we look at the situation beyond our own borders, we can recognize a similar policy and attitude towards leading revolutionary women in different parts of the world, which shows us that we are confronted with a global counter-attack of capitalist misogyny, aiming to prevent our century from becoming the age of women’s liberation. This is why they attack us so brutally, in an organized and systematic way. But there is one truth they tend to forget: No matter what they do, they will not be able to prevent our liberation, they will not be able to stop the women’s revolution. If they take one from us, we will fill in for her with thousands. This reality comes to light today also in Eastern Kurdistan and Iran in the popular uprising that started after the death of Jîna Mahsa Amini.

As confederal umbrella organization of the Kurdistan Women’s Liberation Movement, we condemn the fascist Turkish state, which is a murder state, and its local collaborators vehemently. We condemn the international state community, whose members claim a ‘feminist foreign policy’ but let the Turkish state kill Kurdish female revolutionaries within and beyond its borders.

We call on the women of Kurdistan and the world to take a clear stance against Turkey’s targeted killings of members and supporters of the Kurdish Freedom Movement, especially of the Women’s Movement. It is vitally necessary that we as women of the world counter the attacks of the global patriarchal system, which aims to prevent the women’s revolution age from becoming reality in an organized and effective way. In this sense, we call especially on autonomous women’s groups, revolutionary movements, feminist scientists and all women in the world that struggle to build a free life to embrace the memory of Nagihan Akarsel and the resistance she stands for by protesting against her murder. We call you to defend the women’s revolution by taking a strong stand against all kinds of attacks that target the Kurdistan Women’s Liberation Movement.

Let us get up against all fascist and misogynist regimes by turning our uprisings into a world women’s revolution! Let us embrace the memory of our comrade Nagihan Akarsel by organizing our common struggle on a higher level, based on the notion of Jineoloji.”