Syria: "The West is sacrificing dozens of peoples and faiths"
Tuesday 14 January 2025, by Fabienne Dolet, Berivan Firat
The new government in Syria has received European ministers and seems to have won the goodwill of Western states. The situation of the Kurds who are fighting for their rights remains complicated. Berivan Firat of the CDKF (Kurdish Democratic Council in France) gives his point of view. This interview was conducted b by Fabienne Dolet, on January 4, 2025
What consequences does the new situation in Syria have on the Kurdish resistance?
There is conflicting information circulating, especially around the Tishrine Dam. This bridge connects the west and east of the Euphrates, if it falls, it will no longer have this significance and both sides will be occupied. So if Turkey and the SNA (Syrian National Army) who are trying to seize this dam succeed, they will at the same time have control of the international road connecting Iraq to Syria. If it is occupied, Kobane will be surrounded and threatened from Raqqa to Jizir. It would really be a disaster for us Kurds.
For more than ten days now there have been constant attacks from Turkey, supported by Turkish drones. And despite this, the resistance continues. Turkey has taken a huge slap in the face. There are more than a hundred bodies of jihadists who died in the clashes that were left behind. The Kurds, the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces), it must be emphasized, have managed to resist. Contrary to everyone’s expectations. Everyone thought that in one or two days the Kurdish resistance would fall.
The aggressions have not ended, so the resistance continues. For the moment, the Kurds have the advantage, despite Turkey’s air superiority. Turkey has been bombing for years, less Kobane than other places, but bombing infrastructure, civilians and all that. And this, in the complicit silence of everyone. Kobane has been bombed several times with drones, which directly drop bombs, therefore causing victims. There have been targeted attacks.
There was political duplicity. When Turkey was bombing, when Turkey was massacring the Kurds, saying we are very worried and extremely concerned, that was the only reaction there was. Turkey remains an important ally for the West, although it is the representative of terrorists, of international terrorism. We can say it like that, now that we have rehabilitated the terrorists, the head cutters.
You mean the new leaders of Syria who ousted Bashar Al-Assad ...
They were given suits, their beards were trimmed, and overnight they became ministers, representatives of the army. For example, among them, there is the one who openly killed, mutilated, raped Hevrin Khalaf, who was the co-chair of the Future of Syria Party, a very young Kurdish woman, who was assassinated. Today, without any embarrassment, he is one of the representatives of the new transitional government of Syria. As for Jolani, he has dozens of deaths, dozens of beheadings behind him. That doesn’t bother anyone in the West.
While the West still considers the PKK as terrorist…
On the other hand, an organization like the PKK, which has never directly targeted civilians , which fights with a regular army and fights for its rights, for the rights of the Kurdish people, is still considered terrorist. What is most tragic, or tragicomic, is that these individuals who were brought to the head of the Syrian transitional government were for the most part not Syrians. In one night, they were naturalized to be able to stay there. There are Uzbeks, there are Uighurs, there are French, people of all origins who have massacred people for decades, who have kidnapped Yazidi women.
During the visit of the French minister, Jolani greeted him with the tips of his fingers. The German minister (a woman) was not greeted. So there is this disgust, this belittling of the West which is flagrant, but to supposedly avoid a flow of refugees, for the supposed stability of Syria, especially to thwart Iran, the West sacrifices dozens of peoples and faiths, condemns them to live in trauma, in fear of being decapitated, raped, kidnapped from one second to the next.
It is the West that gives moral lessons to the whole world that validated these people, that rehabilitated them. While the Kurds, who were long considered to be the fighters for the future of humanity (but it was mainly because we died for the interests of the West), are still denied The Belgian Court of Cassation, if I am not mistaken, had decided that the PKK was not a terrorist organization, but an armed movement born of an internal conflict, notably with Turkey. However, they order the PKK activists who went to fight against the jihadists, who went to die there (including my son) to leave Syria because they do not have Syrian nationality, are not Syrian citizens
But the jihadists were naturalized overnight. We are forbidden to stay on our lands, because for us Kurds, the borders on Kurdish territory have never been accepted. Whether in Rojava on the Syrian side, in Rhojelat on the Iranian side, in Bachour on the Iraqi side or in Bakour on the Turkish side, it is Kurdish territory on which the borders have been installed.
This new Syrian government is not good news...
We see how ridiculous realpolitik becomes when it comes to political and economic interests, such as the new Silk Road that they want to build in Syria. It is not to protect the people, it is not for the stability of Syria, it is not for the future of the Kurds. Everyone is there to protect their interests.
The West’s policy of duplicity towards the Kurds continues. The Kurds, who were forced to surrender, that is, to give up their weapons in one way or another, continue to keep their weapons. The Syrian democratic forces continue to resist, to hold discussions with those individuals who are the representatives of Syria. For us, the resistance continues and will continue. In any case, there is no alternative. It is either die on your knees or die standing... to have victory
In France, that means that there is even more need of solidarity to respect the memory of the murdered activists, men and women, and to demand justice and truth...
Absolutely. These two political attacks of 2013 and 2022 are not unrelated to the international situation or the situation of the Kurds. It is not insignificant to kill women from a community that, despite a progressive project, is quite patriarchal and feudal. The honour of women is extremely important. So they wanted to bring the Kurds to their knees.
In 2013, the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office was immediately called upon to investigate the case. From the first moments of the triple murder of Sakine Cansiz, Fidan Dogan and Leyla Saylemez , on January 9, we were told about an internal settling of scores, that is to say that it was the PKK or a small group within the PKK that had killed them. Things turned out to be different, with the effort of journalists and Kurdish people, who went digging for evidence on the terrain, to find the videos that show when the individual enters and leaves the building. Afterwards, there was a message ordering assassinations that had been committed by three individuals from the Turkish secret services. Afterwards, there is an audio cassette that prepares the assassinations ,that was edited. It was shown that the Turkish secret services were behind it.
For the assassinations of December 23, 2022 of Evîn Goyî (Emine Kara), Mîr Perwer and Abdurrahman Kizil, we know that the man who killed them was not an ordinary guy — he had all the characteristics of an agent on a mission. For whom? Russia? Turkey? The jihadists? There are many leads. He was a man behind whom there are forces that premeditated, that prepared, that fomented this triple assassination, especially those who targeted the head of the Kurdish women’s movement, Emine Kara. This is not nothing.
The first time, they targeted a woman who was one of the co-founders of the country. The second time, they targeted the activist of the Kurdish women’s movement, the person in charge. They didn’t just kill Emine Kara by chance. In 2022, the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office was not notified.
On Thursday, January 9, there will be a silent march in memory of the activists who were murdered . In the evening at 6:30 p.m. at the town hall of the 10th arrondissement, there will be a debate with lawyers and activists from the Kurdish women’s movement.
On Saturday, January 11, at Gare du Nord from 10 a.m., we invite everyone who wants to join us for a large “Truth and Justice” march which is semi-European.
More than ever, we need the solidarity of our friends to talk about what the Kurds, the Halevis , the Druze, and all the martyred minorities in Syria are experiencing.
Published in the weekly l’Anticapitaliste) issue 736 on January 9, 2025 .
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Fabienne Dolet
Fabienne Dolet is a activist of the NPA.
Berivan Firat
Berivan Firat is external relations spokesperson for the CDK-F (Kurdish Democratic Council in France).
International Viewpoint is published under the responsibility of the Bureau of the Fourth International. Signed articles do not necessarily reflect editorial policy. Articles can be reprinted with acknowledgement, and a live link if possible.
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