Message from the Women’s Defence Forces (YPJ) of Rojava, Syria

Written by: YPJ Information Office on 3 October 2023

(Above: September 17, 2023, YPJ women fighters at a memorial meeting for comrades killed in Tourkish drone attacks)

We have received a message from the Women’s Defence Forces (YPJ) of Rojova, a predominantly Kurdish-held area in Syria. Having successfully fought against ISIS, they are now under drone attack by the Turkish state. 
They have sent us two pdf documents, Turkey’s War Against Women Fighting ISIS, and Ten Years of the YPJ. If you would like copies of these, please contact us at ozml@protonmail.com. 

Dear comrades, 

We are the YPJ Information & Documentation Office and write to you from the heart of the Rojava Revolution in North and East Syria. 

One of our goals is to strengthen alliances with democratic and socialist forces from the world and get in touch with organisations which are struggling against capitalist modernity. We believe that the paradigm on which we built our revolution is not just an alternative for Rojava, Syria or the Middle East, but for the whole world. 

As YPJ we are mostly known for our fight against the Islamic State, in which we turned ourselves into living shields protecting the whole of humanity against the barbarism of these Islamist gangs who were used by nation-states against our people and our revolution. But next to our defensive tasks as a military force, we see ourselves first and foremost as an ideological force committed to create a society around the three principles of women's liberation, direct democracy and ecology. 

As a basis we take the paradigm of Democratic Confederalism, a concept that Abdullah Ocalan developed after he was kidnapped in an international conspiracy with the involvement of various NATO states and imprisoned by the Turkish state in 1999. Since then, he is imprisoned in solitary confinement. For the last years he is completely cut off from any legal support or communication, and so we don’t have any information about his current situation. 

The YPJ was founded on the long tradition of the anti-colonial women's struggle in Kurdistan and the experiences of the women's guerrilla forces in the free Kurdish mountains. We have a deep ideology and analysis on patriarchy, the capitalist system and its liberal ideology. In the 11 years of the ongoing revolution, we developed methods and concrete ways on how a just an equal society can be built and how especially women can liberate themselves from thousands of years of patriarchy mentality. 

At the moment we are facing brutal attacks of the Turkish state which is killing our comrades in targeted assassinations via drone strikes. Almost every day, a Turkish drone is targeting vanguards of the revolutions, women who bravely fought ISIS and also civilians. Even according to Human Rights Conventions or International Laws these attacks are classified as war crimes. 

Being a NATO member, Turkey is committing these crimes with complete impunity. The silence of the international community is supporting Turkey, making them understand that they can act completely outside any legal or ethical standards. 

As YPJ Information & Documentation Office we provide on the ground information and want to get in touch with journalists who are already covering the region or who would be interested in covering the topic. Therefore, we would like to ask if you could forward our contacts to journalists, but also to activists, politicians, researcher or anyone who wants more information on the ongoing Turkish attacks, the Rojava Revolution and the works and tasks of YPJ. 

We are also interested to be in exchange with feminist, socialist or democratic organisations to discuss and share the experiences of our struggle. Attached you will find two brochures. One is about the history, ideology and aims of the YPJ, the other one documents Turkish drone assassinations which killed eight of our comrades in 2022.

If you have any questions please contact us via mail or phone: WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram: +491782238561 

Revolutionary greetings, 

Sara YPJ Information & Documentation Office

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