Rojava “Land where the Sun sets” is three separate enclaves on the border of Syria and Turkey, the areas are called, Jazzera, Afrin, and Kobanî.
Photo by PicturesnVideos.info
Rojava is an active, stateless, self-ruling area that thrives on the bottom-up autonomous way of leading themselves. This art of anarchism is a refreshing alternative to the Statist style governments that millions of people aimlessly follow and always conclude in collapse do to greed and power.
The approximately 2 million people in Rojava have separated its land into 22 sections, each containing a minister along with 2 deputies, out of these three one has to be female and they must be from different ethnicities, Syrian, Arab, Christian, or Kurd.
What’s very pleasant to hear is that neighborhoods and municipalities are independent to the extent as running their own resources, making their own decisions and solving any problems that arise by themselves. These localities even have their own citizen security groups, the military and police answer to only the citizens.
The open unregulated ownership of weapons is encouraged and range from rifles, handguns, rocket launchers, and even tanks. They have what is called ‘Asayas’, a voluntary police force that is always open enrollment for anyone who attends the six weeks of training. Offering voluntary training to every citizen is their way to eventually omit the police.
Rojava has a numerous amount of voluntary cooperatives to continually stimulate the flow of goods through their communities. Hundreds of them are in operation with at least 50 people on hand at every one to turn the wheels of free trade. Independent farmers and co-ops compete against each other as well, by selling or trading their goods freely. The achievable goal is to abolish the need for currency when trading for goods that are a necessity. Special attention is given to the art of being self-sufficient and putting the power within the people.
There is No Tax in Rojava! No banking sector. The People own businesses and have their own private property. Buying and selling property is easy and doesn’t involve any outside interference, and entering the new deeds is a very speedy and simple task.
Their defense forces are all voluntary, they make some of their own weapons and acquire what they can on the black market and whatever is left behind in skirmishes around the region. Although they lack the modern-day weapons that ISIS is supplied from the west, they still stand their ground.
Rojava’s volunteer forces were the only active defense on the ground against ISIS until Russia has deployed theirs in the last few days. Earlier this year they successfully rescued over 20,000 of the Yezidi clan, who were found defenseless, trapped, and surrounded by ISIS in the Sinjar mountains. In return some of the Yezidi men and women trained and joined the Rojavan volunteer militia on the frontlines. The well needed reinforcements were welcomed, they were fed, clothed and housed by Rojavan families who volunteered their humble abodes. Humanitarian efforts are conducted frequently and assisting people in need is second nature to the wonderful people of Rojava. Being an isolated beacon of hope and living free is shunned by neighboring countries like Turkey. The Turkish Government urged by NATO denies them aid and has a strict and severe trade embargo on Rojava. The west just look the other way from freedom fighters such as these, because they just don’t fit the mold for the United States in any way.
Kurdish YPG Fighters – Photo credits Kurdishstruggle
The Turks say that they don’t back ISIS, but the most powerful ISIS camps are all on the Turkish border, with ISIS and other murderous groups that benefit off the easy access to their peaceful land. Often being the usual suspects that are breaching the Turkish Syrian border to viciously attack the Rojavan citizenry. Constantly bracing for a never-ending slew of dangerous attacks from the enemy that in some instances sit only a few hundred meters away
Back in the 2014 “Kobanî will not fall” was shouted by many among in the Turkish government to soothe sympathizers while on the other hand blocking any aid to the to people of Kobani, willingness to accept refugees, or reopen trade routes so Rojava could acquire much-needed supplies. Protestors in support of Rojava have been dealt with by harsh authoritarian police and forced curfews during peaceful rallies in support of Rojava. Sources have said up to thirty people have lost their lives standing in solidarity for Rojava. The Turkish government are continuing to label them terrorists, a convenient way for them to bash their identity. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said this about the Rojavan struggle for independence, “We will never allow the establishment of a Kurdish state in Syria, we will continue to fight in this regard, no matter what it costs”.
Abdullah Ocalan – Photo By Rojava Report
Claiming that they hold the decades old beliefs of the imprisoned Kurdistan’s Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan who led a fight for Kurdish independence from Turkey beginning in 1978. Ocalan and the PKK’s failed attempt to create an independent homeland for approximately 14 million Kurds resulted in the death of about 40,000 on both sides including civilians. Ocalan fled to Syria and was protected by Assad until continued pressure from Turkey forced him to kick him out. Ocalan was then captured by the C.I.A. in 1998 after years of remotely commanding his followers, and the revolutionaries were designated terrorists in 1997 by the American State Department. The remaining fighters fled to lands just south of the Turkish border and settled in the far northern part of Syria to what is now Rojava. While incarcerated Ocalan was permitted to receive books, he became enamored with the likes of Michel Foucault’s “Society Must Be Defended” and Benedict Anderson’s “Imagined Communities.” One of his supporters slipped him a book from a Vermont based author that really struck a chord with him. Murray Bookchin’s “Ecology of Freedom” which later became a manifesto of sorts, Bookchin’s other work, “Urbanization Without Cities: The Rise and Decline of Citizenship” was absorbed as well as a viable alternative to the modern-day nation states that Bookchin called “libertarian municipalism.” Mr. Bookchin strongly believed that the lessons of liberal and Marxist governments were a corrupting influence and detrimental to human freedom.
In March 2005, Ocalan presented the “Declaration of Democratic Confederalism in Kurdistan.” The manifesto encouraged all P.K.K. members and supporters to install a series of ideas that he became enthralled with while reading from these and many other authors. Ocalan suggested that all the guerrilla fighters read “Ecology of Freedom.” With that he asked his followers to cease attacking the government and instead form municipal assemblies, which he labeled “democracies without the state.” These assemblies would conjoin to create a confederation that would stretch across all the Kurdish regions of Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. This pro-freedom idealism would be joined together by a common thread based on defending the environment, self-defense, respecting religious, cultural, and political differences. Ocalan was insistent that women were to be equal in leadership positions at all levels of society.
Hediye Yusuf, co-president of the Jazeera canton said that “Rojava is something beyond the nation-state, it’s a place where all people, all minorities and all genders are equally represented.” Raymond Joliffe from the British House of Lords visited in May of 2015 and was quoted saying “What you are doing here is a unique experiment and deserves to succeed”. Last December Dutch professor Jan Best de Vries donated $10,000 to help them purchase books for the students. David Graeber, founder of Occupy Wall Street said “The autonomous region of Rojava as it exists today, is one of the few bright spots, albeit a very bright one, to emerge from the tragedy of the Syrian Revolution.”
Today Rojava is continuously shadowed under extreme threat. Kobanî has been destroyed by ISIS. Constantly being left out of peace resolutions, and not even being mentioned when the heads of NATO convene. Why would we expect anything different from the larger advanced countries west of them, specifically the United States that are weakening freedom efforts such as these through their illegal wars and what seems to be endless forced regime changes. The US and NATO created these ruthless globe-trotting terrorist organizations to plant evil along their path of destruction. America, with the game controller in hand to dictate, supply, and lead their razing mercenaries into peaceful regions with a push of a button.
Stuck in the middle of a part of the world where people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds go to great lengths to even kill each other and where females are under life long oppression. Rojava’s survival has been due in part to its ‘people first’ philosophy by sustaining its existence through the ideas of religious tolerance, self-rule, voluntarism and reciprocating respect between genders, race, and religion. Rojava is a prime example of human equality, their people are engaged in everyday functions standing side by side without the ignorance that most areas of the world inflict on their populations. Freedom to self-rule and breaking off from the power-hungry governments to seek a path to self-sustainability is a way of life that is rumbling from underneath the current debt stricken, one-sided governments. The awaking of the people to this act of Freedom should not go unnoticed, exposure and education is essential to inform the world’s inhabitants that there is a true cure for this ailing world.
By Andre’ Gabriel Esparza – DontComply.com
