JINHA

AMED – The first-ever Middle East Youth Conference started in Diyarbakır yesterday, bringing together representatives of youth groups from across the region to debate possibilities for building alternatives to capitalism through discussing the history and politics of the Middle East.

The Democratic Regions Party (DBP) and Democratic Society Congress (DTK) youth assemblies have organized a three-day conference under the slogan "youth will build their strength and liberate the Middle East." Representatives from Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Algeria, Afghanistan, Cyprus, Yemen, Turkey and Kurdistan have gathered at Diyarbakır's Cegerxwîn Culture Center.

The youth of the Middle East called this conference to stop the projects being planned against them and to heighten the struggle for freedom, explained MülkiyeBirtane, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) MP from Kars, in a speech.

"We started as youth, we'll succeed as youth" has been a main slogan at the conference, where Kobanê Canton People's Assembly Co-Chair Ayşe Efendi gave the opening speech. Despite the victory in Kobanê, she reminded participants, Daesh's attacks, orchestrated by European states, continued all around.

After Ayşe Efendi, SongülAşina, of the DTK Youth Assembly based in Northern Kurdistan, spoke at the conference on behalf of youth in Northern Kurdistan.

"The Middle East is not just a word, a battle or a history," she said. "It is an existence." She called Daesh the latest in nation-states' projects to exploit the Middle East.

"But the people of the Middle East have not accepted slavery and they have escalated their struggle against the colonial mindset," she said. "In a time when the Middle East is this close to liberation, it's out duty to all stand together and to present this hope to the Middle East."

Evin Danış of the DBP youth read a message from PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. Speeches stressed that this was a historic moment of opportunity for the region.

Youth have been the leaders in the struggle against the order that capitalist modernity attempts to impose on the Middle East, said HDP MP SebahatTuncel, from the people's uprising known as the Arab Spring to the historic resistance in Kobanê.

Luisa Morgantini, former chair for Italy in the European Parliament, said that as a 75-year-old freedom fighter, she could say that Palestinian and Kurdish youth taught them every day how life should be lived. She advised them never to abandon their struggle for freedom.

The day continued with a film screening and debates. Topicsfor discussion in the coming days include the social and historical structure of the Middle East in the context of capitalist modernity and the development of shared struggle in the search for alternatives to capitalism in the region.

"We know that the Rojava revolution is a revolution on behalf of all humanity. Kurdish youth have opened a new way for youth around the world," said MülkiyeBirtane. "When there is a chance of a new design for the Middle East, you youth will be the ones to take the lead."

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