The Situation in Rojava
This winter the Rojava Revolution faced its greatest existential threat since the war against ISIS. The Syrian regime of Ahmed al-Sharaa carried out a massive attack on North-East Syria with the tacit support of the Trump administration. By the time a ceasefire was implemented, Kurdish communities in Aleppo had been ethnically cleansed, countless war crimes had been committed by regime soldiers, scores of ISIS prisoners had been released, and much of the Autonomous Administration's territory had been seized by the state.
The people of Rojava did not passively stand by and watch these events unfold. They put up a fierce resistance, uniting Kurds from across all four parts of Kurdistan and mobilizing public support around the world. As a result of this resistance, Rojava remains. The Kurdish-majority communities of the North still maintain their own political and security structures. Today the future of the revolution hangs in the balance while the movement navigates a process of intense negotiations over integration and power-sharing. Most importantly, Rojava's autonomous institutions, and the revolution's vital social gains such as women's autonomy, must live on under any new agreement with the Syrian state.
As the United States and Israel wage a new war on Iran, throwing the region into further chaos, the Kurds of Rojhilat also find themselves caught the dangerous and difficult position of trying to protect their communities in the face of enormous uncertainty. While they stand opposed to the violent, repressive, and theocratic government in Tehran, they also understand that the people of Iran must choose their own path and lead their own struggle, independently from the cynical interests of powerful foreign states or the reactionary opposition figures they choose to prop up. In the words of the co-chair one of Iran's leading Kurdish parties:
"We see from the experiences of the wars occurring in the Middle East that the politics of external powers do not serve the people and are only in the interest of their own authority... As the Kurdish people, we will struggle for a democratic Iran with our free will."
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For in-depth news and analysis about the evolving situations in Kurdistan and beyond, we recommend the following resources: