Turkey was gripped by uncertainty Wednesday ahead of an imminent statement by jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Öcalan, founder of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)
from Agence France-Presse /Kurdish Minute/ANHA/SDFPress/RiseUpForRojava on 8th Feb 25 with thefreeonline (banned in Turkey) at https://wp.me/pIJl9-FYj
Serving life without parole on a prison island near İstanbul since 1999, Öcalan is imminently expected to address Ankara’s call for the PKK to lay down its arms.
Jailed PKK leader willing to take initiative for settlement of Kurdish conflict: nephew Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)…
Ocalan previously negotiated two long ceasefires with Turkey, both finally broken by the State. The second ceasefire resulted in a ‘Kurdish Spring’ in Turkey whose 20 million Kurds blossomed in cultural, linguistic and political rights after many decades of repression.
In 2015 when Kurdish parties threatened to unseat his ultra-nationalists via the balance of power Erdogan drowned the ceasefire in blood – bombing majority Kurdish cities like Nusaybin and parts of Cizre to rubble amid deafening silence in the West.
Turkish authorities’ crackdown on Kurds, including political figures and journalists, is continuing amid ongoing peace talks between Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), aimed at ending the 40-year conflict between the state and the outlawed group
Police conducted early-morning raids on several homes in southeastern Mardin province, detaining Ziynet Algan, the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party’s (DBP) former Nusaybin district chair, along with Mithat Yılmaz, Lokman Aslan and others, according to a report by the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya news agency on Friday.
Turkish police detain 269 after rally for jailed PKK leader’s freedomTurkish police have detained 269 people in connection to a recent demonstration in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish province of Diyarbakır where protestors demanded an end to the…
The Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) also reported on Friday that Birsen Orhan, the former co-mayor of the eastern city of Tunceli from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), who was removed from office in November on terrorism charges, was given a suspended sentence of five months.
Orhan was detained on the same day she was removed from office after participating in protests over the mayors’ dismissal and was under house arrest. A Tunceli court had ruled to lift Orhan’s house arrest and travel ban on January 15.
Thousands protest daily in Rojava(AANES) for SDF and Tishreen, blocking the Turkish sponsored jihadi mercenary offensive from crossing the Euphrates.
The court on Friday sentenced the former co-mayor for “publicly provoking the commission of an offense,” considering the prosecutor’s argument that her use of the words “occupation” and “struggle” during her speeches at the protests posed “a threat.”
Meanwhile, Kurdish journalists Ali Barış Kurt and Öznur Değer were also detained on Friday, according to Mezopotamya.
Kurt’s detention followed the upholding of his prison sentence of more than two years by the Supreme Court of Appeals for social media posts and journalistic activities, while JINNEWS reporter Değer, who was beaten, handcuffed behind her back and forcibly removed from her home by the police, was referred to court with a request for arrest.
Police confiscate Nelson Mandela book and others, detain publisher at book fair in southeastern… Police raided the Diyarbakır 8th Book Fair on its fourth day, confiscating five books and detaining publisher Artı Gerçek … Incarcerated Kurdish leader Ocalan is often known as the “Kurdish Mandela”
The authorities’ continued arrests and efforts to silence those advocating for Kurdish rights raise questions about the sincerity of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government in addressing the longstanding Kurdish conflict and deepen concerns about the future of the negotiations.
Turkish courts sentence 3 Kurdish mayors on terror-related chargesTurkish courts have sentenced three elected Kurdish mayors to prison on terrorism-related charges in separate trials, Turkish media reported. The mayors are Mehmet Sıddık Akış,…
Critics of the peace talks say the public is given little information about the discussions’ content.
They question what concessions Turkey will offer to persuade the PKK to lay down its arms and what steps the government will take to improve the cultural, political and linguistic rights of the Kurds, who have been fighting for these rights for many years.
In 2015 a peace attempt initiated by Ankara broke down, unleashing a wave of State war crimes in the country’s predominantly Kurdish southeast.
Öcalan, 75, has said he was “determined” to be involved in a process that would turn the page on a conflict since 1984.
Should Öcalan make the call, it remains far from clear what he stands to gain from the unprecedented olive branch that was extended with the blessing of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“What did Erdoğan propose? We don’t know anything, is he ready for concessions?” wondered Hamit Bozarslan, a Paris-based specialist on Kurdish issues.
“Öcalan calling on his followers to lay down their arms does not mean a capitulation nor a renunciation of the right to defend the legitimacy of the Kurdish cause,” he argued.
Speaking on Wednesday, Tuncer Bakırhan, co-chair of the pro-Kurdish People’s Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) said Öcalan was “preparing the formula for an honorable solution to the Kurdish question.”
“We don’t know its exact content, but we know it will include a message regarding a democratic response to the Kurdish question,” he said in Diyarbakır, a Kurdish-majority city in the southeast.
What of PKK in Syria, Iraq?
Another unknown is how any such call would resonate among PKK militants in the mountains of northern Iraq or in northeastern Syria, where the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are resisting attacks and ethnic cleansing of tens of thousands by the Ankara-backed mercenary jihadi militias with Turkish troops, airforce, drone and heavy artillery support.
Ankara views the US-backed AANES multi-ethnic social administration’s SDF defense coalition with hostility, alleging one of its elements, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), is an extension of the PKK.
The hugely popular AANES endorses Ocalan’s philosophy with radical horizontal democracy and Women’s Liberation, unheard of in the Middle East, and a key reason for Turkish, HTS, and Irani hostility.
One of 100’s of wounded by the Turkish attacks on the ongoing Human Shields mass picket blocking the crossing of the illegal and criminal Jihadi /Turkish offensive into the Kobani area via the Tishreen Euphrates Dam
Daily support demonstrations continue around Rojava with large convoys of citizens traveling to the Euphrates frontline to act as Human Shields, attacked by Turkish drones, jets and artillery with 28 civilian deaths and 100s of injured so far (8th Feb 25).
The SDF defends a huge semi-autonomous Kurdish-led administration in largely desert northeastern Syria that flanks the Turkish border, in another vital element which will play into the mix.
Turkey is relying on Syria’s new rulers to address its always touted “security concerns”. Although attacks on Turkey across the border are nonexistant (and attacks from Turkey a daily crime) Erdogan remains obsessed about contagion of the AANES social system to the repressed Kurdish omajority on the Turkish side of the closed Border Wall..
Speaking on Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the stance of Syria’s new interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa (Jolani) “on the fate of the PKK/YPG is perfectly clear,” expressing confidence he would “address Turkey’s security needs.”
His remarks came a day after al-Sharaa’s first official visit to Turkey.
US stance key
Although al-Sharaa has rejected any form of Kurdish self-rule and urged the SDF to hand over its weapons, regional actors know much will depend on US President Donald Trump and his new administration.
Is the END of Rojava coming? – you can help save a unique human experiment in real time!- Help expose Turkey’s new fascist invasion! – The Free↗thefreeonline.com 2nd Feb 2025
Recent rumors suggest that the U.S. may be preparing to withdraw its more than 2,000 troops deployed in Rojava, SDF-AANES, in north and eastern Syria
on 2nd February 2025 from thefreeonline at https://wp.me/pIJl9-FTZ Tgram https://t.me/thefreeonline/2126.
Banner shows 11 of the civilian ‘human shield’ protestors murdered in cold blood by Turkey at Tishreen Dam
Such a move could weaken the SDF to the point of collapse and we hope the reports are mere rumors.
However,the AANES/SDF revolutionaries, although sponsored by the International Coalition against ISIS, are totally against US policies. The US has only supported them in resisting ISIS, indeed in 2019 Trump betrayed them to allow a Turkish invasion which seized and ethnically cleansed a border zone leaving thousands still in internal refugee camps.
The 100,000+ strong SDF coalition of multi-ethnic and women’s militias does NOT get paid by the USA (chatGPT sources) but by their AANES coordination and vows to resist the promised major offensive by Turkey, the 2nd biggest army in NATO, alongside the new Damascus Regime, formerly HTS, formerly Al Qaeda jihadi ‘headchoppers’.
The revolutionary AANES constitution reflects the democratic principles, communal work, human rights, ethnic and religious tolerance, Woman-Life-Freedom, gender equality, and the decentralization of power already being implemented with great enthusiasm in their liberated area..
The revolution, unique in the middle east if not the world, follows the teachings of Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned forever on a Turkish island.
It began in Turkey in where there are over 20 million repressed Kurds, when Ocalan organised the PKK defenders to make a 2nd successful truce with Turkey, until the Erdogan regime forced the collapse of the agreement in 2015 and drowned the civil revolution in blood, even bombing Kurdish cities in Turkey like Nusaybin to rubble to stamp out Kurdish horizontal democratic practices . see photo.
The revolution survived however in NE Syria. e Assad regime had to abandon the area due to almost losing the civil war.
The Turkish armed jihadi ISIS Caliphate had been sweeping north Syria, but the Kurdish defenders defeated them in the epic Siege of Kobanî (Sept 2014 to Feb 2915) despite the destruction of the city, with the International Coalition (mainly the USA) finally intervening with some air support.
After the Kobani victory the Kurdish defenders (YPG men and YPJ women) went on to organize the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces, now over 100k strong) as a host of other militia groupings joined them, Arabs of all sorts, Yazides, Womens militias, Christians, Syriacs, Turkmen, Armenians, etc
The rest is history, the SDF defeated ISIS in Manbij and set up a vibrant unique multi cultural multi religious city following the communal liberation agenda and continued east.
(However in January 2025, taking advantage of the fall of the Assad regime, Manbij was finally conquered by Erdogan’s horde of Turkish backed jihadi mercenaries in an orgy of looting and rape, even executing the injured SDF defenders in their hospital beds.(videos)
Serekaniye in Rojava, Syria was seized and ethnically cleansed by Turkey in part of its 3rd invasion labeled ‘Operation Peace Spring’, thousands of residents are still surviving in internal refugee camps
The SDF went on to defeat the ISIS Caliphate, finally taking over their capital of Raqqa (2017) with air support (which is now rebuilt and a thriving, free, minority Kurdish multi-ethnic city) and driving them out of all NE Syria, including the Arab area in Deir Ezzor, where most of the limited oil reserves are located.
Feb 2025 – Is the END of Rojava Looming? – you can help save a unique human experiment in real time –
Trump is rumored to be planning to withdraw the 2000 US troops and cancel its support for the SDF/AANES in suppressing and guarding ISIS.
The region’s ethnic and religious diversity is its defining feature, which the AANES authorities often highlight as part of their political platform promoting coexistence and tolerance among the different groups.
AANES/SDF would objectively be better with almost any other guarantor than the genocidal predator capitalist USA, which reduced Syria to starvation levels since 2019 under Trump’s orders under the draconian Caesar Act Sanctions (now paused) as revenge for its proxies not winning the civil war.
How can we save the Rojava Revolution?
The best thing we can do is to promote International support. The Kurdish Diaspora is strongly behind AANES/SDF, also the Kurds in Turkey, though heavily suppressed.
There are dozens of support groups especially in Europe as well as some ONGs and Human Rights Groups who could try to deliver some aid in the event of a US withdrawal and major Turkish invasion.
However there is extensive Rojava support media, also international and multilingual, and one of the chief ways you can help defend the revolution is by sharing these media reports, including many videos and trying everything to make mainstream media include them.
- Rojava Information Center
- #Riseup4Rojavahttp://www.riseup4rojava.org https://t.me/RiseUp4RojavaEng
- ANHA ENGLISH https://t.me/enhawarnews
- https://t.me/International_Rev
- https://t.me/sdf_press
- Medya News
- Donate now to Hevya Zor for 75K destitute refugees EMERGENCY AID FOR ROJAVA! – heyvasor.com
- Rojava resists! 200,000 Saved! International anarchist and leftist groups declare their support for SDF thefreeonline.com/2024
- Situational update Rojava Information Center- 5th Dec 2024
It is possible to volunteer, especially if you have medical or military experience, and there still are international groups that can organize the trip. Many international comrades have been killed defending Rojava.
Unfortunately Rojava is blockaded on three sides, for the moment aid can enter via Iraq where there is some Yazidi and Kurdish support but this could be blocked if/when the US leaves Syria and/or keeps its promise to leave Iraq.
What are most needed perhaps are thousands of lightweight drones which could even stymie NATO’s 2nd largest army in guerrilla warfare. Turkey has always been wary of committing its own troops, mostly forced draftees and prone to a bad image and some embarrassing losses.
Other options look unviable or unlikely:
Trump abhors the local ideology of course. He betrayed the SDF back in 2019 and let Turkey invade and ethnically cleanse the border area. He also declared in a macho rave that the US was only there for the oil. Ever since then the entire Arab media always repeats that Rojava exists to help the USA steal their oil (though the quantity is insignificant and there is no modern refinery).
Turkiye
Meanwhile every single report in the Turkish (95% indirectly state controlled) media reminds us that all Kurds are ‘PKK terrorists’ and must be eliminated. Erdogan boasts at killing Kurds, genocide is an ultra-nationalist tradition and imperialist expansion inspires support despite the dire ecoinomy.).’- PKK are NOT terrorists! Erdogan rejected Ocalan’s Peace Plan, sabotaged their Truce. bombed their cities… –
New Syrian Govt
As for the new HTS «inclusive» regime in Damascus – it’s looking grim. Jolani, now named Syria’s ‘President’ has declared all militia groupings are being integrated under his control into the State army, except the SDF which is happy to be an autonomous part of the new «inclusive» State – but refuses to disband and face destruction and likely genocide.
There’s a fundamental contradiction between the brilliant Constitution of Rojava and the ideology of President Jolani, former leader of the Al Qaeda ‘head choppers’.
The AANES Constitution represents a region where various ethnic and religious communities coexist peacefully, where women and minorities are guaranteed equal rights, and where local governance is based on the principles of autonomy and self-determination.
Iran
Then there is Iran, could it help Rojava survive? Unfortunately ‘Woman-Life-Freedom’ is anathema to the present clerical regime. Indeed several women in Irani Kurdistan are right now facing the imminent Death Penalty for their Jineology views. –Iran: Two Kurdish Women at Risk of Execution
Russia
Could Russia intervene to stop the Turkish invasion destroying Rojava?. – It’s true that Russia has played the peacemaker, sometimes limiting Turkish atrocities against Syrian Kurds in the past, although they betrayed them by gifting the Afrin area to Turkey,by allowing their ongoing invasion, occupation and ethnic cleansing, in exchange for an oil pipeline. In any case Russia is now out of the picture, being the main backer of the defunct Assad regime.
Also there is Israel, now grabbing a slice of southern Syria… It’s doubtful whether the SDF would accept aid from the genocidal zionist settler regime even to save their own lives, and very unlikely that Israel would ever offer.
Israel
Finally there is International support. The Kurdish Diaspora is strongly behind AANES/SDF, also the Turkish Kurds, though heavily suppressed. There are dozens of support groups especially in Europe as well as some ONGs and Human Rights Groups who could try to deliver some aid in the event of a US withdrawal and major Turkish invasion.
Turkey’s jihadi mercenaries are now better trained, well armed and supported, nevertheless they are an unstable conglomeration of many authoritarian militias whose base loyalty is to Turkish promises of looting and women.
SDF local support is at it highest ever with daily demonstrations and displays of local organisations, especially youth, declaring they will fight to the death.
This is also evidenced by the continuing convoys traveling to the Tishreen Dam frontline , despite daily Turkish massacres, to act a human shields.
At the Tishreen Dam crossing of the Euphrates tens of thousands of multi ethnic civilians have traveled in convoys from all over the AANES area, taking turns at an ongoing day and night demonstration in freezing conditions, with the hope of shaming Turkey before international opinion into halting the invasion.
It is possible to volunteer, especially if you have medical or military experience, and there still are international groups that can organize the trip. Unfortunately Rojava is blockaded on three sides, for the moment aid can enter via Iraq where there is some Yazidi and Kurdish support but this could be blocked if/when the US leaves Syria and/or keeps its promise to leave Iraq,.
However there is extensive Rojava support media, also international and multilingual, and one of the chief ways you can help defend the revolution is by sharing these media reports, including many videos and trying everything to make mainstream media include them.
Meanwhile the war goes on. The SDF and civilian resistance have effectively stopped Erdogan’s mercenaries at the Euphrates.
But the frustrated Turkish army and air force are intervening more every day, deploying more heavy artillery, bombing and drone attacking towns and villages.
WAR REPORTS AND CONTACTS
Today thousands of people marched in Til Temer, Shedade, Dirbesiye, and other cities to support the SDF and the resistance of the people at the Tishreen dam
Biji berxwedana QSD! (SDF)
Biji berxwedana Tişrîn!! (Tishreen)
Photos via Ronahi TV (https://ronahi.tv/archives/308962)
****
By February 2025 at least 40 demonstrators have been massacred and 100s wounded by Turkey and proxies from the air at the Tishreen Dam- (see below) with the western media almost silent, and the Turkish and Arab media printing a pack of lies, if anything at all.
Another of 100’s of wounded by the Turkish attacks on the ongoing Human Shields mass picket blocking the crossing of the illegal and criminal Jihadi /Turkish offensive into the Kobani area via the Tishreen Euphrates Dam
Over the past two days, the Turkish occupation has committed three massacres. The first massacre in the eastern countryside of Ain Issa, where three civilians, including two children, were martyred. Today, the Turkish occupation targeted with heavy artillery the Umm Harmalah village in the Zarkan countryside, resulting in the martyrdom of three civilians, including a child, and leaving nine others injured.
Continuing this series of massacres, a Turkish occupation UCAV bombed the popular market in the city of Serrin, causing the martyrdom of eight civilians and injuring 20 others, some critically.
These blatant massacres, documented with photos evidence, not only condemn Turkey but also the international community’s silence in the face of these ongoing Turkish crimes and violations in north and eastern Syria.
Youth of Amûdê form a battalion to defend the city
(https://hawarnews.com/kr/ciwanen-amude-ji-bo-parastina-bajer-taburek-ava-kir)
Aniother group of young people, from Amûdê in northeastern Syria, has formed a battalion to support the SDF and Internal Security Forces in protecting the city and strengthening security. The battalion was created to defend the city and surrounding areas from ISIS cells and threats from the Turkish state. Battalion members have stated they are ready to protect their region with the support of the Internal Security Forces.
Greetings from Rojava!
Exciting news, Jenni (co-author of Worth Fighting For) just started updating on the current situation here in Rojava from on the ground and will be travelling to Tishreen Dam ASAP and share her impressions from there with us.
It would be amazing if as many people as possible could follow her videos and re post them, you all know how difficult it is to get a social media going. Her first video will be posted this morning around 8.30/9
It’s extremely important to break the silence on the ongoing war here in Rojava and support the Revolution
Turkey launched more airstrikes against SDF posts in the eastern Aleppo countryside on January 29, targeting an airstrip near Sarrin and the vicinity of Tishreen Dam without causing any casualties.
It’s worth noting that in the days leading to the clashes the SDF stepped up its FPV drone strikes in the eastern countryside of Aleppo, damaging or destroying several pieces of equipment of the Turkish military, including two T-155 Fırtına self-propelled howitzers.» Support SouthFront
photos from Turkish invasion, occupation and ongoing ethnic cleansing in Afrin, Kurdish area of Syria.
While the West goes crazy about Russia invading to protect ethnic Russians the MSN stays silent while Turkey grabbed and ethnically cleansed parts of Syria 3 times for racist and imperialist reasons and now begins a full scale invasion, with the demented logic that «Syria must remain united». Turkey is now a fully terrorist state like Israel with zero respect for international law or human life.
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