
What is
Rojava —officially called the Autonomous Administration of North-East Syria, or AANES — is a 50,000km2 large part of Kurdistan, home to about 4,600,000 inhabitants, with a Kurdish & Arab majority.
After decades of oppression from the governments of Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria, the Kurdish people have developped a tradition of resistance rooted in ecology, women's rights and democratic confederalism — a rich theory which was put to the test of practice in the 2013 revolution, when Rojava declared independence from Syria and started organising autonomously. Early on, they had to resist to the genocidal ambitions of Turkish president Erdogan, and in 2016, the Kurdish military forces, including their famous women's army, were on the front line to fight off ISIS. Today, they host thousands of refugees from the war, and continue to build a society project that refuses patriarchy, the nation-state system, and capitalism. They constitute one of the most important inspirations for ecologists & activists on the left worldwide. When the Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad and his regime were toppled in December 2024, Turkey used the chaos of the moment to dramatically increase their attacks on Rojava, now thrown into a full blown war, with thousands of lives in the balance.
The call for people to go to Rojava has been made by Kongra Star, a feminist organisation in north east Syria. You can find out more about what they do on their website - https://kongra-star.org/eng/about-us/
The purpose of the trip is to create connections between social movements in the West with those on the ground. It is also to bring media attention to what is happening on the ground with the activist going able to speak to both British and French press who are covering the trip.
If you want to follow what is happening on the ground there are several good sources of information News about the trip will also be shared on this blog page.
Follow the Kurdish solidarity movement in Scotland on social media and join calls to protest or events to find out how best to support.