Evaluation of the current political-military situation, 11th August 2020

Evaluation of the current political-military situation, 11th August 2020

In the evaluation of the current political and military situation of July 21, published by “RiseUp4Rojava”, it was already made clear that with a clarification of the situation in Heftanin the next invasion attack on Rojava will follow. On this basis, we consider it once again necessary to evaluate the current situation in detail as well as in its general context. It is important, especially in confrontation with a wave of attacks of the psychological special warfare machinery, in social media and general media against the revolution in Rojava and Northern Syria and the fighting Freedom Movement of Kurdistan, to clarify some points and to put some developments into context with each other in order to understand their scope and meaning.

What is the situation in Heftanin right now, what is the situation of the Turkish army’s operation against the liberated Medya defence areas, and what is the situation of the resistance? What kind of planning of the international and regional imperialist forces against the liberated areas of North-East Syria is emerging, and how do the events in Deir ez-Zor and the much speculated oil agreement of the Autonomous Self-Administration of North-East Syria, among others, fit into it?

For months now, there has been a single “main topic”, dominating the world’s public debate: the Corona pandemic. In many countries, public life has been completely or almost completely brought to a standstill, the workers, poor, exploited and oppressed of this world are being plunged country by country into despair, unlimited dependence and perceived powerlessness, and an anti-social system of “social distancing” is being established step by step. The alienation of life is being pushed to its peak. Life as we know it is brought to a standstill in many ways.

However, the world in which we live has not come to a standstill, and even less have the plans and concepts of the imperialists and the occupation and exploitation policies of Turkish fascism come to a standstill: sending tens of thousands of mercenaries from Syria to Libya, imperialist sovereignty efforts in the Mediterranean, actively influencing the conflicts in Yemen and many other countries. Every day, attacks on the population and every breath of counter-organisation are taking place in Turkey and Northern Kurdistan; every day, the mountains and villages of Southern Kurdistan (Northern Iraq) are being bombed; every day, dozens and dozens of drones are being sent to monitor the region, to freeze the movement of the resistance and to strike when the opportunity arises. Day in, day out, the entire propaganda machinery of the Turkish state and its henchmen is being set in motion with the one aim: to disrupt the resistance, to break the will of the fighting peoples. The secret service MIT of the Turkish state has built up an army of informants and agents on the territory of Turkey, in the region and internationally, with which any kind of information gathering, psychological warfare, lobbying and provocation, up to the targeted distribution of narcotics within the society and direct liquidation operations are carried out. No matter whether city or village, mountain or plain, military or, if desired by them, civilian, everything, no matter where, is a potential target of the Turkish NATO army.

On all levels – political, military, economic, social and media, both regional and international – the revolution is attacked by the ruling forces and it is attempted in every possible way to isolate, marginalise, criminalise the movement and deprive it of the support and participation of the peoples. For the big imperialist states and their strategic alliances, especially the USA and NATO, it is clear that a democratic, liberal and anti-capitalist revolution in the Middle East cannot be victorious and that a NATO army in the 21st century cannot, under any circumstances, lose in the war against a peoples’ army and a guerrilla movement. They are aware of the geo-political and historical significance of such a possibility in a place like Kurdistan and a region like the Middle East and the explosive impact that this reality could have on all other parts of the world. Likewise, the Turkish occupier state and its fascist AKP-MHP government are also aware that they will lose any right to exist with the revolution. Both historically and currently, the Kurdish question is, therefore, for the fascist Turkish state a question of being or not being. It is also not a question that only concerns Rojava or would only concern the mountains; it is both a question that concerns all parts of Kurdistan and their respective occupier states, and a question that has world-historical significance and just as great a potential.

The extensive liquidation concept, which is being carried out against the PKK and the Freedom Movement, has accordingly not just been initiated recently. After the military coup of 12th September 1980, which was supported and controlled by the CIA-Gladio, finally failed to fulfil its self-imposed goals – i.e. the elimination of all left-wing, socialist and revolutionary potential – new ways and means had to be found in order to allow the reawakened Kurdish people to sink once again into silence. The resistance in Amed prison and the start of the organised armed struggle on 15th August 1984, whose 36th anniversary we are celebrating now, had turned the coup into the opposite: For the first time, a revolutionary perspective for the Kurdish people had manifested itself in this form. In 1986, when the PKK was to blame for the murder of Olof Palme, which was quite obviously in line with the Gladio war strategy that was also being carried out in other places, it became the occasion for a new international offensive against the liberation struggle in Kurdistan. Step by step the whole movement was criminalised, illegalised and branded with the stamp of “terrorism”. Nobody was interested in the fact that such an action contradicted any logic and interest of the PKK. It was not until this year 2020, 34 years later, that it was officially clarified that the whole story, as always declared by the liberation movement, had not taken place, and yet one searches in vain for an apology, a clearer explanation of the events described and their direct and indirect consequences. What happened? Among other things, following this conspiracy, the movement and the Kurdish people were confronted with an ultimate war of annihilation despite all their attempts to initiate a political and democratic solution process on their part. The result: tens of thousands of dead, millions of refugees, thousands of destroyed and burned villages and total criminalisation on an international scale.

When the US and NATO strategists realised that the movement was gaining strength and influence and was opposing the downfall of the socialist movements worldwide, the international conspiracy against Abdullah Öcalan was prepared, organised and carried out, and the Imrali isolation system against the movement and the people was introduced. It is important to understand this conspiracy as an essential part of the Greater Middle East Project of USA-NATO. However, at this point, with the perspectives from Imrali and a continuous ideological, political, social and military struggle, the conspiracy came to nothing, and out of its internal crisis and external policy of annihilation, the Freedom Movement emerged stronger than ever: the strategy of Revolutionary People’s War was adapted to the reality of the 21st century, the revolution in Rojava took place, and a historical resistance was organised against the fascist offensive of the IS, which resulted in the military defeat of the IS and the liberation of many regions in Northern Syria and Şengal.

Against these developments, from 2014 onwards, the Turkish state began to adopt the concept of “knee crushing” (tr.:diz çökme). Once again it lost itself in the wishful thinking of doing it like in Sri Lanka (Tamil solution): This means absolute strategy of annihilation on all levels, i.e. total escalation. On 24th July 2015, the anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne, the Turkish state started a comprehensive operation against the guerrillas and since then the war in three parts of Kurdistan – South, North and West – is at its peak. In preparation for this, total isolation was again imposed on Abdullah Öcalan in April 2015. We can clearly speak of a second international conspiracy against the Kurdish Freedom Movement with the occupation of the canton of Efrin in the spring of 2018 at the very latest. The aim is to deprive the people of the achievements of the struggle once again, to eliminate the PKK completely or at least to send it into insignificance with military force and the long-term isolation and criminalisation strategy, and to assimilate what remains according to their own interests. The USA would like it if Rojava would simply degenerate into a second Southern Kurdistan (KRG), that is, if it would give up all its own will and surrender to its “destiny”.

The operation of 9th October last year and the following occupation of Serekaniye and Til Abyad region are another part of this international concept against the revolution, and the natural consequence of Turkish fascism. It is not a coincidence that it was in 2018 of all times that the USA issued high bounties on some PKK leaders; it is also not a coincidence that, despite all the audacity, Turkey is kept on its feet with capital injections, and the most modern weapon systems are continuously sold to Turkey, both by the NATO member states and Russia. These are then the weapons used in Efrin, Serekaniye and Heftanin: German, Italian, US-American and Israeli weapons, amongst others! The imperialist powers profit from this war! Moreover, they cannot accept the existence of a self-confident Kurdish people, a project of serious siblinghood of the peoples of the Middle East, and cannot risk the danger of the victory of a guerrilla movement in the 21st century. That is why the Turkish state is being kept on its feet and can more or less do whatever it wants in the region.

In coordination with the USA and other NATO states, as well as partly with Russia, Turkey is taking action against the revolution: Within this framework, extensive air and ground operations are taking place in Turkey, Syria and Iraq, drone attacks and bombings are planned and carried out, intelligence findings are shared. In the context of this generally uniform concept, an attempt is being made to divide the movement itself and the peoples at all costs, following the principle: divide and rule! The religions and denominations are pitted against each other, the nations are played off against each other, the Kurdish people are divided amongst themselves into innumerable parts: geographically, politically, socially, economically and culturally. A distinction is made between the “good Kurd”, who does what he is told, and the “bad Kurd”, who trusts in her will and is self-confident; and accordingly, either heavy blows or soft assimilation is pushed forward. The futility of this politics is proven by the mere fact that the war continues at full speed in the mountains and in the plains, in the villages and in the metropolis with the most different methods. In Heftanin, it has been shown once again that the Turkish army, despite all modern technology, is incapable of asserting itself in the fight against the guerrillas and, on the contrary, has suffered the most severe blows.

Since the loud drum roll at the beginning of the operation, the Turkish media landscape has been more or less silent about the offensive, which was actually announced in such an audacious manner. It has become an offensive that has pushed the Turkish armed forces, their mercenaries and village guards into a passive position and left them virtually at the mercy of the guerrillas. At the same time, the youth in Northern Kurdistan and in Turkey is of course not in a deep sleep, but from the East to the West of Turkey, daily actions are taking place against the occupiers, fascists and their henchmen by so-called revenge units, namely the YPS and YPS-Jin, and the initiative Children of Fire. In Southern Kurdistan, from Seladize to Suleymaniye, the population is on the streets against the occupation, and young people join the resistance group by group. And the resistance continues in Rojava, too. Despite the fact that the occupation of Serekaniye and Til Abyad was a heavy blow for the revolution, the determination to drive the Turkish soldiers and their Islamist proxies out of the country is felt everywhere.

It is becoming apparent that the next escalation is imminent. In joint coordination, both Syrian and Turkish secret services are trying to create chaos in the liberated areas, using various means to get the population on the streets against the Autonomous Self-Administration. This became particularly apparent in Deir ez-Zor last week. In this area, in which many IS sleeper cells are already active throughout, influential personalities behind the project of Democratic Nation are being deliberately murdered by the aforementioned secret services, creating problems between the various tribes, QSD and the Self-Administration. The oil agreement, which was recently signed by the Autonomous Self-Administration of North-East Syria, is also being used as an occasion to spread various anti-propaganda, and thus to generate antipathy locally and internationally. It is obvious that the Rojava project does not really have any alternatives. Because if it does not want to lose its autonomy and political independence and wants to be able to counter the economic crisis, the embargo and the war, it understandably needs ways out like this. It is one of the basic principles of the Federation of Northern Syria that all the resources of that country belong to all the peoples of Syria, and it is against this background that an agreement has been concluded with limited production and for a limited time with a US company. This is also, incidentally, a direct consequence of the Syrian state’s refusal for years to sit down at the table to build a new Syria together. Instead, the Syrian state continues to have only one perspective, and that is to do everything again exactly as before. In view of the fact that the country has virtually bled to death, this is relatively unrealistic. You would think that after so much war, suffering and bloodshed, even a government like that of the Ba’ath regime should think about changing things, but no, they insist, as does the Turkish state, on their ideology: one state, one nation, one language, etc. – There is no room for democracy, diversity and autonomy.

As part of its special warfare and preparation for further escalation, Turkey cut off all natural water supplies to the region. The Euphrates in Syria is on the verge of drying up, and the Tigris in Iraq is also gradually losing mass. The main source of water supply to the Heseke region is in the village of Alok, East of Serekaniye, and is in the hands of the fascist thugs. Against this background, we should perhaps ask ourselves once again who is actually exploiting the natural resources here and depriving them of their true owner, namely the people and nature.

In light of the Corona pandemic and a related global attack on societal existence, i.e. human existence itself, and in light of the growing aggression of Turkish fascism in Kurdistan and in the whole Middle Eastern region, it is necessary to organise the resistance together, hand in hand, in the sense of an international anti-fascist, anti-imperialist, and anti-capitalist front, and to prepare for the next attack on Rojava. Turkish fascism, and this is obvious, will not be stopped in Libya or in the Mediterranean, but it will be finished in Rojava, in the mountains of Kurdistan and with the uprising in the metropolis.