Cahide Harputlu – Narin Çapan / JINHA

KOBANÊ – Kobanê Canton co-president Ayşe Efendi says that unless the international community, civil society organizationsand civilians come together to ensure that a humanitarian corridor to Kobanê is opened, the city's reconstruction will be impossible. In an interview with JINHA, the woman leader analyzed the challenges the women of Rojava are taking on: Turkey's violent policies, lack of international aid, an influx of returning Kobanê residents and the need to build solidarity with women from all of Syria's ethnic groups.

"Turkey must recognize the Kurdish reality"

Daesh gangs surround Kobanê on three sides. On the fourth,it is blocked off by the Turkish border. The Turkish state tightly controls the border, although during the heat of the fighting, large trucks moved into Daesh-controlled territory through the border gate and Turkish soldiers were seen meeting with Daesh gang members.

Ayşe, commenting on recent political developments in Turkey and Rojava, said there was no difference between the policies of Turkey,Daesh's attack on Kurds and Syrian state policy.

"What Turkey was trying to accomplish in Rojava, especially in Kobanê, has been defeated by the resistance of the Kurdish people, especially the YPG/YPJ," said Ayşe. "Daesh, jointly supported by Turkey and international forces, is pursuing the same project as the Syrian state against Kurds."

Ayşe emphasized the people, government and Parliament of Turkey all defend different positions, and that this disagreement had been ongoing since the arrest of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, 16 years ago. The leader recently released a 10-point draft plan for democratizing Turkey in the scope of the peace process.

"For many in Turkey, the continuing detention of President Apo is meaningless." She says with the world's eyes on Kobanê, negotiations are bound to begin soon on the Kurdish question.

"Because Kurds want peace. But this isn’t the case with the Turkish side. They're attacking in every possible way." She mentioned the simultaneous political and diplomatic attacks and the military attacks with Daesh's heavily armed forces, all supported by the Turkish state.

But Kurds won't wait for anyone, including those in Ankara who oppose the peace process, to begin building their freedom, says Ayşe.

"We're going to make our own decisions and open our own Kurdish-language schools." She also commented on the recent Internal Security Law in Turkey, saying it was contrary to the peace process and must not be accepted.

"The Turkish state can't stop millions of Kurds. With the Kobanê resistance, Kurds' willpower became obvious. Turkey needs to see this reality."

On the topic of the recent Turkish military operation on Syrian soil to move the SüleymanŞah Tomb, Ayşe said no one should believe the Turkish state's claim that they undertook the operation without asking anyone's permission.

"We were in Kobanê and there were four or five meetings with state officials about this, attended by the YPG/YPJ forces and Mehmûd Berxwedan from our side," she said. Turkish soldiers advanced with the protection of the YPG/YPJ flag, she said.

"We could have denied permission for their soldiers. Two, three years before the war they also came and visited, with the TEV-DEM flag waving. They shouldn't kid themselves; if they're coming and visiting under a people's flag, that means they are accepting that people."

Kobanê reconstruction process in danger

She says there are a number of inadequacies when it comes to the reconstruction of Kobanê.

"Promises were made to remove these inadequacies, but they have not been fulfilled," said Ayşe. "For example, there are Daesh gang members' corpses in the city. These need to be removed. Right now, to remove the health hazard of these corpses, we need special clothes, masks and medicine. We need special vehicles to remove the mines Daesh left behind as they retreated.

"Educated people and experts need to come to Kobanê," says Ayşe, saying the canton government has made an open call for experts. "So far, no one has applied. We have people in the villages, but they're on the front, because Daesh leaves mines behind everywhere they go and our people need to clean up those mines."

For all these reasons, said Ayşe, the project of rebuilding Kobanê, beginning in the coming months, requires the mobilization of a range of groups: the international community, civil society groups, women, young people and Kurds.

"There needs to be a humanitarian aid corridor to Kobanê. And this corridor needs to be supervised by international monitors to ensure that aid can pass." She says the canton government wants to open a camp for returning citizens, but right now there are insufficient resources for this.

"Some aid has been provided but it doesn't even meet the operational requirements of the municipality itself," she said. "The reconstruction of Kobanê needs to be on the world agenda so that developments can happen faster." The canton government has been extremely taxed by the influx of citizens returning to Kobanê, said Ayşe. She said it is best for families not to return en masse until the tent cities are founded.

"As soon as they come back, families go to their villages, but this is extremely dangerous. People have lost their lives because of this. We are asking them not to come until we issue a call for people to return," she said. She stressed that with the influx of families, it was urgent for aid to come as soon as possible.

March 8: "Women of Syria must rise up against oppression"

This International Women's Day, said Ayşe, women should take part in the reconstruction of Kobanê, the symbol of the women's revolution underway in Rojava. "Our struggle is not just for Kurdish women, but for all women of the world.

"We need to think about how to save Êzîdî women [in Daesh hands]. There have been rapes in Tell Eran and Tell Halis. Women of Damascus, Arap and Assyrian women are raped, often under the name of 'honor.' We need to solidify our understanding of resistance and take revenge on those women's behalf." She said that through the YPJ, Kurdish women have taken revenge on behalf of all brutalized and raped women, including Êzîdî, Arab, Assyrian and Syriac women in Syria. She called on Syrian and Arab women to take part in the Rojava revolution.

"Aleppo and Kobanê and Efrîn are neighbors, Qamişlo and Rakka are neighbors. We have relationships with Arab women. But Arab women kept themselves at a distance. They couldn't get over their own experiences of rape," she said. "Let me say again, whatever religion or sect they belong to, we must come together as women. Our pain is the same.

She said this International Women's Day, she sent her greetings to the women of the YPJ leading the revolution; to the women of Northern Kurdistan who have fought back against Turkish soldiers' plans for the Kobanê border through their peaceful resistance; and to imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, in whose philosophy women play a central role.

"I want to say to women, especially mothers, to hold your heads high, especially when it comes to your revolutionary children." She saluted the mothers of martyrs.

"Our children's ideas were bigger than ours. Their hearts were bigger than ours. Their bravery and strength was greater. The fact that 13, 14-year-old girls wanted to fight in the YPJ shows that this people will not live under dominance any longer."

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