NEWS CENTER -  In a statement regarding the attacks on Kurdish neighbourhoods in Aleppo, the Co-Presidency of the KCK stated that such attacks sabotage a reasonable solution and welcomed the resistance against the attacks.

 

The Co-Presidency of the KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council issued a statement about the ongoing attacks on the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh in Aleppo.

 

The statement reads as follows: "For several days now, heavy weapons have been used to attack the Kurdish neighborhoods of Aleppo. Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which has taken control of Damascus, is attacking people with ethnicities and faiths differing from them. Initially targeting the Alawites and then the Druze, the gangs and mercenaries operating under the Damascus interim government are now focusing their attacks on the Kurds. This once more reveals that the forces that took Damascus are hostile to society and the people. The Ba’ath regime has been overthrown, and now the bearded Ba’ath has descended upon Syria like a nightmare.

 

The neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh have been Kurdish settlements for over a century. After the civil war began in Syria, the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood resisted as a whole community – women, children, and the elderly alike – against both the Ba’ath regime and the HTS, consisting of the same gangs and mercenaries as today, which wanted to take over all of Aleppo. In the line of the Revolutionary People’s War, the Kurdish people in Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh have been resisting for 15 years now. The way that the people resisted alongside the self-defense forces at the Tishreen Dam, the people of the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsut and Eşrefiye have been resisting like this for 15 years now. The Kurds in these neighborhoods are defending their identity and culture. They are conducting their resistance to become part of a democratic Syria.

 

The attack on Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh is an attack against democracy. They want to de-Kurdify these neighborhoods. Under the leadership of Ahmed al-Shara, the rulers of Damascus have a mindset that denies the existence of any different ethnicities and beliefs. They aim to create a monist nation-state based on one nation, on one language, on one culture, and on one single faith by subjecting all different identities to genocide, as seen in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is therefore that they attack the peoples who want to create a democratic Syria based on the concept of the Democratic Nation.

 

This approach is a continuation of the Ba’ath regime. If Ahmed al-Shara and the interim Damascus government want to be a legitimate authority and ensure Syria’s unity, they must abandon such approaches and pursue a policy that ensures Syria’s unity together with the Kurdish people and other peoples. It is still not too late to do so. Considering that the Kurds in Syria are in constant dialogue and that have continued recently, such attacks are to be seen as an attempt to sabotage the dialogue process and to prevent the creation of a reasonable solution.

 

The gangs and mercenaries currently attacking the Kurds in Aleppo are fascist groups that were recently added to the UK’s list of terrorist organizations. These are the forces that took over Damascus alongside HTS. Various groups within these attacking forces strive to remain in charge in Syria, maintaining their fascist character. Either Ahmed al-Shara has been taken political hostage by both these groups and other political forces, or he himself is presenting as such to gain support in the political arena. The gangs and mercenaries currently attacking Aleppo follow the same mentality as Daesh (also known as ISIS), which the Turkish state trained and equipped and presented as the so-called Syrian National Army (SNA). The fact that media outlets affiliated with the Turkish government defend these attacks and act as spokespersons for the gangs and mercenaries shows once again that the Turkish state is behind this attack. Also, journalists reporting from Aleppo say that the Turkish state is supporting these attacking gangs.

 

As the Kurdish freedom movement, we called on the Turkish state to support and embrace the Kurds in Syria during a process initiated by Kurdish people’s leader, Abdullah Öcalan, in response to Devlet Bahçeli’s call. Because these Kurds are relatives of the Kurds in Turkey. We wanted Turkey to play a positive role in Syria, saying that just as Turkey stands by the Turkmen, it should also stand by the Kurds. We reiterate our call that this is what Turkey must do if it wants to create a new century based on Kurdish-Turkish brotherhood.

 

The people of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh have resisted for 15 years with the strategy of the Revolutionary People’s War. Today, too, the entire society, including the elderly, women, and children, has to resist in the same spirit. It will set an example of the tradition of resistance it has maintained for 15 years. Our people must remain in their places with the entire society, including the elderly, women, and children, against this attack to de-Kurdify Aleppo and all of Syria, and resist the gang attacks.

 

We believe that the people of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh will resist in line with their 15-year tradition of resistance. We salute their resistance, and we believe they will crown it with success.

 

We call on all Kurdish people in the four parts of Kurdistan and abroad to embrace the resistance of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh."