As their forces advanced into predominantly non-Kurdish areas, YPG/YPJ commanders had anticipated the need to allay local fears that they were subjugating Arabs. Rojavas democratic organising principles made it easy for existing campaigners for the environment to join forces and work together. We were oppressed by the regime. DFNS has a lot of archeological sites like Washookani, Tel Tamr, Tel Khalaf, Tabqa, Tishreen, Arpad. As RICs own State of the Occupation reports documented since the last Turkish military operation ended at the end of 2019, the situation in Afrin and the M4 Strip has been marked by hundreds of cases of human rights violations. HRW,October 1996, Vol. In doing so, the cantons, consisting of their different district councils, also established their own transitional administrations. It also rejects the capitalist system and seeks to promote the philosophy of Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who has long advocated more Marxist-leaning policies. This encompasses the Euphrates (the former Kobane canton, including Tel Abyad, Sarrin, and Ayn Issa), and. The right to self-determination and the prohibition of the death penalty and torture are also firmly enshrined in law. The SDC creates a political framework for the governance of Syria along a decentralized, federal model. These are supposed to spread from below and can also emerge within the framework of factories and civil society organizations. Its core argument is that modern capitalism causes environmental destruction and ecological crises that go hand in hand with the exploitation of people. Appreciate yur haring this one. For example, the Union of Kurdish Youth Coordination Committees took the lead in the protest movement across Kurdish cities, reaching out to youth groups in the cities of Damascus and Homs in order to unify their political demands. Though the Rojava Revolution started as a Kurdish revolt against central state erasure, it has grown beyond this horizon, transforming its organizational structure as well as its names, which is why a holistic description of the system remains out of reach. Later, some of the soldiers returned to their families across the country, while another group stayed on to prevent the city from falling into the hands of the FSA. Prior to Putins assault on Ukraine, BOAK claimed responsibility for burning a telecommunications tower belonging to a Turkish company near Kyiv in solidarity with the Rojava Revolution in North and East Syria. Russia's foreign minister advises Rojava's Kurds | Rudaw.net Our system is not a centralized system, it is rather based on the principle of decentralization. Declaration by the Kurdish Front, YouTube Kurdish women and girls, who are subjected to forced marriage, kidnapping, rape and sexual violence, are particularly affected. Kurds against themselves, Kurds against Arabs. More and more, we saw that our people were the most in need of a change and a revolution. Of course, we cant say that such an agreement is 100 percent perfect, but in principle it is widely accepted. 27. We don't accept Syrian politics without a place for all the people of Syria. Since then, it has trodden a careful path between satisfying both the Syrian government and the foreign aid providers to maintain a working administration. Russian troops and armored vehicles were reported to have been spotted around Afrin. The most recently-liberated regions, which include many majority Arab areas, have also been integrated into the federal council system. As of September 6th 2018, the SDC adopted the current official name for the region, renaming it the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), sometimes translated as the Self-Government of North and East Syria. At the commune level, not all committees are present in all communes, but the education and self-defence committees are common across all villages and city neighborhoods. Goods continued to circulate between Rojava and regime territory, with taxes levied by the Syrian army as well as various Assad-allied and rebel militias. Your email address will not be published. So before building up councils and communes, as a basis, we needed for different people to come together, trust and believe each other and love each other. There are also Turkmen, Caucasian (predominantly Chechen), Syriac-Assyrian, Armenian and Dom minorities. In particular, reconciliation committees provide support in such cases. Amina Omar sums up that, so far, a large part of the population has accepted and agreed to the social contract: This social contract is to the benefit for the people because it guarantees the rights and duties of each individual. To remedy this discrepancy would require a massive, long-term [], [] [17]https://www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/autonomy-institutions-in-chiapas-and-rojava-what-lessons/&https://rojavainformationcenter.com/2022/07/10-years-of-the-rojava-revolution-much-achieved-still-mu [], [] [17] https://www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/autonomy-institutions-in-chiapas-and-rojava-what-lessons/ & https://rojavainformationcenter.com/2022/07/10-years-of-the-rojava-revolution-much-achieved-still-mu… [], [] the revolution enters its eleventh year, many locals are enthusiastically involved in developing new institutions and [], [] tahun sebelumnya. The original areas of the three non-contiguous cantons that first declared independence have a Kurdish majority population, but the extended area that these regions now encompass, as well as the regions that most recently became part of NES (Manbij, Tabqa, Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor) are largely Arab. Experiences vary widely, from impeccably-functioning communes, with regular meetings and a working council structure, to less active communes with unclear responsibilities, opening hours and missing structures. In fierce battles between 2012 and 2014, the militia succeeded in bringing several border towns under its control and proved to be the most effective force at controlling territory and defending Kurdish areas from the growing threat of armed extremist militias. Another income source is petroleum. The AANES, consisting of three regions (Afrin, Euphrates and Jazira), was formed in early 2014 in the context of the Syrian Civil War, a conflict that has caused the involvement of many different countries and international organizations in the area. In January 2014, the three Kurdish-majority cantons of Cizr, Kobane and Afrin declared their autonomy from the Syrian government. Green Left, (2019), Rojava Revolution Seven Years On and Rojava an example of ecosocialism. The organization dedicates a large section of the report to self-defense. In the preambles to the social contract, the nation-state is presented as the cause of the conflicts in NES. Since February, however, Kurds have been able to send fuel through the Syrian army corridor between Manbij and Afrin via Aleppo. However, it did not deny the legitimacy of the Syrian state. (A House bombed by Turkey near Derik, February 22nd 2022). Popular organizations prevented acts of revenge and destruction, protecting the still intact infrastructure. Accordingly, if the United States and its allies hope to prevent Tehran from establishing such a corridor, they will need to reinforce their own influence in Syrian Kurdish areas. Bombings and the burning of fields is common. This also led to the establishment of the women-only Womens Protection Units (Yekneyn Parastina Jin; YPJ) militia on April 4. The SDC is a political assembly representing political parties, organizations and different groups (tribes, Yezidis etc.) Negotiations with the Syrian government, as well as diplomatic relations with international powers, are generally conducted through the SDC. The Kurdish Movement and the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria It also mandates, among other executive council bodies, a Body of Foreign Relations. Schools in Rojava teach ecology as a fundamental principle. The application of Ocalan's theories is still modest in Rojava's economic sphere, as the PYD is aware that it risks alienating a large part of . We are committed to providing journalists, researchers and the general public with accurate, well-sourced, transparent information from on the ground in the North East Syria. Turkey first invaded Syria during its Euphrates Shield operation in 2016. During the course of this uprising, the Kurdish youth were quick to organize, forming local committees to coordinate efforts with anti-government activists elsewhere in Syria. 7. Our system is not a centralized system, it is rather based on the principle of decentralization, 20. is how Berivan Khaled sums up the importance of the communes. (International Womens Day in Qamishlo, March 8th 2022). Domination versus cooperation, colonisation versus autonomy, oppression versus freedom, patriarchy versus partnership these values are the warp and weft of the defining struggle for the future of humanity. Previously, Hasaka had been assigned the role of producing raw materials, particularly oil, cereals, and cotton. Kurdish fears were confirmed on January 19th 2018, when Turkey launched the operation Olive Branch, as the bulk of the SDF was busy fighting ISIS in Deir ez-Zor. The social contract stipulates a political system based on participatory democracy, gender equality and ecology. In the frame of this kind of self-administration an alternative economy will become necessary. 17 This is also emphasized by Berivan Khaled. Report by the Free Burma Rangers. In order to gauge its true achievements and shortcomings it will sidestep essentializing and sensationalist discourse, such as was mentioned above, focusing instead on the people in NES and the real-world changes to their lives. The Kurdish enclave in Syria was probably doomed from the start. From Kobane, the uprising spread to other Kurdish-majority cities across northern Syria in a matter of days. However, the Kurds as hitherto a comparatively weak minority in the country, would not be able to induce significant changes in the absence of major transformations first taking place in the broader conditions of the Syrian security state.. These councils served as a model and basis for the commune and council movement in northern Syria. The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), also known as Rojava, is a de facto autonomous region in northeastern Syria.It consists of self-governing sub-regions in the areas of Afrin, Jazira, Euphrates, Raqqa, Tabqa, Manbij, and Deir Ez-Zor.The region gained its de facto autonomy in 2012 in the context of the ongoing Rojava conflict and the wider Syrian Civil War, in which . highest legislative assembly and ensured the right of the people to establish democratic autonomous administrations and aimed at unifying all groups under the democratic federalism of North and East Syria. Arab Belt was a project by the Syrian Baath Regime to change the demographic balance of Northern Hasakah in favor of the Arabs.[6]. bianet.org/english/world/242693-slavoj-zizek-teaches-at-kobane-university. As the political bodies, these, too, have been subject to dynamic changes in the past decade. Police buildings were quickly cleansed of the emblems of the old state, and important files were confiscated. In 2011, in order to establish this democratic self-administration together with the constitution of the first communes and councils throughout Rojava the PYD established an organization that aimed to advance and cement the new ideas of autonomy and democracy in society: the Movement for a Democratic Society (Tevgera Civaka Demokratk; TEV-DEM). As the civil war in Syria continues, in the territory of Rojava - in Kurdish, 'the West' - the northern Syrian Kurdish political movement is attempting to implement 'libertarian municipalism', based on the thoughts of United States (US) anarchist Murray Bookchin. The international volunteers with the People's Protection Units (YPG) self-defence militia have been widely reported on,[13][14][15] as to a lesser extent have the international volunteers with the infrastructure-building initiative. Our revolution is a social revolution with a new existence and the possibility to have new ethics and a new ethical way of thinking. Alternative ways of living can develop when the forces that would typically undermine them are otherwise engaged. 11. The group is focused on protecting each other, resisting the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) and building an egalitarian community in the middle of a warzone.