#ypg

[illiliiliil]

Kurds in Slemani demonstrate in support of Rojava

[antifainternational]

Might be the best overview of the current situation in Syria we've come across.

[thenorthkurdistan]

Nûdem Durak

‘Meet the Kurdish woman imprisoned in Turkey for singing.’ (2015)

[avruwu]

Laniya Kalmasi !OC - Eileen’s Mother

[ameliacf13]

What do you think of what is happening in Rojava right now? Can you tell me more about the time you were in YPG? How were you treated? Did you kill ISIS yourself?

What do I think? God, I don't know. I'm not surprised but I'm furious. It's practically the inevitable outcome, but it hurts more than I expected. In 2015, I watched ISIS fighters walking across the Turkish border into Syria, with Turk armoured cars watching the whole time. Of course they sided with the jihadists in power, of course they decided Kurds having a modicum of self-determination is simply unacceptable. If I was 20 again, I'd probably be back there in a heartbeat. Alas.

Anyway, I was treated well by the YPG, taken in as an equal even when I barely spoke the language. I am a majorly autistic weirdo, to the point my fellow western fighters took me aside at one point and were like "hey bro, do you have autism?" but the YPG fighters never treated me as any lesser. If anything, they tried to bring me under their wing just a little more.

I recall one time I was kicking around a soccer ball all alone, just killing time, and one of the fighters came over and offered me a little piece of jewellery. It was basically a set of Islamic prayer beads (misbaha) made of twisted copper wire. I still have it today, a little lucky fetish I keep with me.

As for the last point, I'll just say maybe. I shot my rifle at ISIS (mostly in the dark), but there were dozens of Kurds doing the same thing. Did my bullets take them out or did theirs? Does it matter? Why even ask?

Idk, I used to not mind the "did you kill" question because I'm comfortable with the facts of killing and dying in war. Nowadays it feels half a purity test, half a "are you a REAL soldier" thing. No clue if you meant it that way anon, but that's sort of how it is.

Hope this answers your questions.

[roniciller]

Berxwedan Jîyan e

[kurdisharchivist]

2013 - YPG’s first Military Council meeting. Note the pictures on the wall behind Mahmoud Berxwedan.

(Mele Mustafa Barzani, Sheikh Said, Qazi Muhammed, Seyid Rıza, Dr. Abdurrahman Qasimlo)

[thegalievthought]

A Letter To The Comrades In The SDF

My message, to the various groups of the SDF, who are as varied as life in the sea. To those who said you would stand up, and defend and get justice for the people of the coast. Will you comply with this treaty? Can you morally do that? Now with this treaty that the American Fascist Trump put on you, you will be allies with the same terrorists who helped kill your families years ago. The same terrorists who killed hundreds of innocent people in the coast. And will be forced to by proxy be allies with the fascist Turkish government that seeks the total annihilation of the Kurdish, Armenian, and Alawite peoples. This treaty in one signature signs away all you have fought. It signs away your dignity as humans to defend the revolutions you made, it signs away your dignity as humans to defend your homes, families, and people you swore to protect. It signs away the women's revolution of the YPG and others, it is very clear that this treaty in all terms was unacceptable. To collude with the enemy in this way should have been unthinkable. Yet your leaders signed it because they would rather listen to the fascists in DC rather than you. It wasn't unthinkable in fact to them it was acceptable and I am sure the rewards to your leaders will be bountiful as all you fought for is taken away. So to you who sacrificed everything, for years in fighting to define all that you love, do not let your so-called leaders sign it over to the enemy terrorist government in Damascus. Do not let them sign away all you worked for, all you fought for, all your comrades, your brothers and sisters died for. This is not the time to stand for peace when the enemy has guns to the heads of countless innocents! Now is the time to stand up for justice, for the innocent civilians who can't stand up for themselves. Stand there are the shield against the terrorist, fascist and now that it has been seen to be Trump's aim to disarm you to help the terrorist. Stand as a shield against the imperialists in Washington DC and Tel Aviv. 

The most revolutionary endeavor is the hope for justice and peace, the offer made and the treaty signed today was not made in consideration of either. So to the comrades I address here do not stand for it. This is selling all the principles you have and all that you have left.