The civil war in Syria, which started with the people taking to the streets demanding regime change on 15 March 2011 which later transformed into a civil war with the intervention of regional and global powers, left 9 years behind. Syrian Kurds that did not get in line with the Esad regime that wants to maintain the current status quo, or the global powers that want to built a new status quo, put forward the demand for change and freedom of the peoples with the 'Third way' they defended.

 

Despite the attacks they have been subjected to over the course of time, the Kurds, who did not give up their insistence, embarked on the democratic modernity paradigm they defended, and embarked on an alternative model to the nation-state system that caused the Middle East to turn into a bloodbath for a century.

 

The Democratic Union Party (PYD) Co-Chair Council Member Salih Muslim answered our questions regarding the 9 year civil war, the way of the Kurds and Turkey's approach. 

 

Speaking about the civil war that has been going on for the last 9 years and the point it came and the position of Kurds in these war conditions, Muslim said: "Since its establishment, Syria has always been far from democracy and freedoms. The pressure on the peoples increased in various periods, especially with the Baath regime coming to power in 1963. Now the peoples have started to experience various problems against these pressures. Therefore they started to persue freedoms, democracy and peace. It sometimes caused some chaos but the real chaos started at 2011. I don't know if I should call this a revolution or an uprising, but something like that happened.  Of course, this wasn't independent of international forces and plans. Since the 1990s, a new Middle East has been discussed by the dominant powers. With their help and efforts, as well as the Syrian peoples' desire for democracy and freedom, such an uprising took place in 2011.

 

The Baath regime has always tried to discipline and suppress the Kurds throughout history. As a result, an uprising (Serhildana Qamishlo) started in 2004 in Qamishlo. Some called it the 'Arab Spring' but for us, it was the spring of the peoples. 3 powers came out of this uprising.

 

One was the power that wanted change, wanted peace, democracy, freedom, and organized itself within this framework with the support of hegemonic powers. The second was the old, racist and dictator regimes. The third was the peoples and their wishes. But it was weak and couldn't realize itself. The other two powers constantly tried to manipulate and use this power. Our way against these was the 'third way'.  

 

As I mentioned, we tried to organize ourselves as Syrian Kurds since 2004. We have had efforts in this direction before. When the rebellion started, we stated that we will never give up our path, which is the Third Way, and we started marching on that path. Defending ourselves, establishing YPG and YPJ was a necessary defence and was the necessary step. After getting rid of the regime, we had to deal with ISIS. ISIS came to our region with the instruction of Turkey. We had to fight with them and now here we are."

 

Answering our question about the reason for the Turkish attacks, Muslim said: "There is indeed a very sick mentality in Turkey, that thinks any gains of the Kurds is against the Turks. In order for the Turks to survive, the Kurds must perish. Some of the rulers expressed this openly. Süleyman Demirel said 'If a Kurd gets a right in South Africa, we will oppose this'. This is a very sick mentality. People can live with each other. They have been living side by side all this time. What do you get by creating enmity between them? This enmity only makes the sovereign powers win. Turkish fascism acts on the same thing. 'Whatever the Kurds gain, we have to destroy that gain'.

 

Drawing attention to the plans of the international powers on Syria and how ISIS got strong there, Muslim said: "We too do not know this, and we still think about what they wanted in Syria. What we do know is that everyone has a plan with Syria. The international powers, Turkey, Russia or United States. The new design in the Middle East was a NATO plan. But the execution of this plan was made by Turkey. The creation of ISIS is mostly depend on Turkey. Others wanted a moderate Islam. But Turkey backed up these radical  groups like ISIS, it still does."

 

Speaking about the approach of Syria, Turkey and the international powers regarding the Kurds, Muslim said: "There is something customary. Since the beginning of the last century, the ruling powers have been acting with the understanding that "you can use the Kurds, you can pull the Kurds wherever you want, you can throw them aside when you're done". It has been like this throughout history. “The Kurds are fighting well, they work well, we can benefit from this and throw them aside when we're done". This was the approach until today. But there have been some changes in Kurds. Kurds started to organize, to trust their own power, to decide for themselves. We, as the PYD, shouted in 2012, "We have been soldiers of others until now, but from now on we will be our own soldiers". After that, we formed our own military forces and started to defend ourselves. We do not attack anyone, we only defend ourselves if there is an attack against us. After that, we created our own self-management. There were forces that opposed them, did not adopt them. Turkey was one of them."

 

Muslim continued: "Who ever we speak to says that we are right and we should get our democratic rights but they use this as a blackmail against Turkey. Turkey has also made a lot of concessions to avoid Kurds gaining anything. They don't want the Kurds to perish, but they also don't want Kurds to achieve anything or accept coming to terms with the Kurds. We are aware of this." 

 

Stating that there would be no problem if there were someone to come to terms with, Muslim said: "But the Syrian regime and their administators do not agree. We have worked hard to establish mutual trust, but somehow they do not come out of the influence of other forces. We will not be used by others, our demands are clear. We can sit and discuss anything but they do not accept that. Therefore, this Kurdish issue and democratic autonomy have always been suspended. Wherever we go, we act together with other peoples. There were representatives of a Kurd, an Arab, an Assyrian and other peoples among our delegation that went to Moscow recently. They go to the meetings together. Always. Other peoples are included in the autonomous administration and they are the executives of the administration. Turkey fears from this. Turkey is afraid of the unification and the democratization of the peoples, the Kurds, Arabs and other peoples."

 

Making a call to the his people, Muslim said: "Now we are recovering. We have historical duties. It is to bring democracy and freedom to these lands for both our people and other peoples. With this sense of responsibility, who should do whatever he can. We need to develop democracy, ensure the brotherhood and unity of the peoples. We need to do this within the framework of the democratic nation paradigm. This is our only way out. There is no other way. This is something based on legitimate defense. Everyone needs to know this."

 

 

MA / Ferhat Çelik - İdris Sayılğan