We Are Not Afraid of Ruins!
Statement from Tekoşîna Anarşîst on Developments in Syria

Background

On November 27^th the loose coalition of forces that has been engaged in a years-long military conflict with the government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, broke out of a containment zone in the country’s North Western Idlib province. In a matter of days they were able to drive out government forces and claim control over Aleppo, the country’s most populous city.

While made up of a variety of discrete factions, the group responsible for leading the lightning advance is Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a Sunni militant organization and successor to Jabhat al-Nusra, the former al-Qaeda franchise in Syria.

The advance of HTS has threatened areas held by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), colloquially referred to as Rojava. Both HTS and the anti-Assad Syrian National Army (SNA) are backed by Turkey, which seeks the elimination of AANES. In response to these developments, AANES has called for a general mobilization of the constituent militias in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), including Tekoşîna Anarşîst.

Though this brief background is insufficient to fully grasp the rapidly developing situation, we present it here in order to better contextualize the statement from Tekoşîna Anarşîst reproduced below.

This statement is unedited, save for the explication of acronyms.

We Are Not Afraid of Ruins!

More than five years ago the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) brought the caliphate of ISIS to an end. Now, with the new offensive of Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), we risk a rebirth of their atrocities. HTS has united many jihadist groups with ex-fighters of the caliphate in their ranks. Recently they started a big offensive, breaking through the seige of Idlib and making the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) collapse. Aleppo has been the first big city they captured, seizing big amounts of advanced weapons left behind by regime soldiers.

SDF reacted fast, sending reinforcements to protect the kurdish neigborhood of Sheh Maqsoud in Aleppo as well as the refugee camps of the Sheba region. But the proxy force of the Turkish army, the Syrian National Army (SNA), started a new offensive coordinated with HTS, invading that same region of Sheba. The refugees displaced by the Turkish invasion of Afrin in 2018 are, once again, forced to leave their homes at a point of a gun. More than 100,000 people are now looking for shelter in improvised tents on the shores of the Euphrates river, still threatened by further advances of jihadist groups.

These new developments aggravate the instability of middle east, and should be observed together with other conflicts ongoing on the region. The Israeli occupation of Gaza, together with their attacks against Hezbollah, weakened Iran’s position in Syria, limiting their ability to support the SAA. Russian troops, also weakened after almost three years of war in Ukraine, abandoned several ground positions and are brutally bombing Idlib and Aleppo from the sky.

The US tries to keep outside of the conflict, knowing that Trump may push to withdraw their troops from Syrian soil. Turkish soldiers are not openly involved for now, but Turkish state is pulling the strings of SNA to continue their genocidal policies against kurdish people. Assad is trying to rally some international support from other Arab countries, and Iran already started to send reinforcements for a combined counter-offensive with the SAA. In between this chaos, the Rojava Revolution and the Kurdish Liberation Movement resist as the main hope for revolutionaries in the Middle East.

The largest realignment of forces in Syria in the past five years is under way, and it may have implications we can not yet forsee. It is a complex situation, and we see how many journalist are stuggling to grasp it. Many western media have been encouraged by the march of HTS, even calling them a revolutionary opposition, “rebels” against the dictatorship of Assad. We also wish for the fall of the regime, but HTS and their “salvation government” is not a liberatory solution. Their aim is to replace the Assad dynasty with Sharia law and an Islamic State, little different from what the Taliban are doing in Afghanistan or what the Islamic Republic of Iran have done since 1979. This is not a future we can accept, and many Syrians won’t accept it either.

We, as anarchists and as internationalists in Rojava, will play our role in these challenging times. We will fight alongside the SDF to defend and spread the revolutionary project, building a stateless society where the principles of democratic confederalism, pluralism and women’s revolution prevail. We call for all anarchist and other revolutionary forces, now more than ever, to defend Rojava!

We know that war brings suffering and destruction, but it can also open opportunities of free life for those who are ready. We saw what the victory over ISIS made possible here, and we are ready to continue fighting for a better future. Because we are not afraid of ruins!

— Tekoşîna Anarşîst – 3 December 2024

What can I do to support the revolution?

• Traveling to NES is not possible right now, the borders are closed. But you can make sure that what is happening in Syria is known, writing articles, making interviews, podcasts, organizing talks and events in coordination with already existing solidarity commitees.

• If there are solidarity demonstrations in your region, join and support! if not, maybe you can start them!

• You can also provide economical support to those in more need, since the current humanitarian crisis is critical and needs our attention. For that, Heyva Sor is an independent organization already working to support and provide to those affected by the war in north-east Syria.

This is far from over, keep in touch and get ready for further steps!