Hasan says: “I spent most of my life working for an oil company. Now I have been able to fulfill my dream: to open a bookstore. The best part is when people come back and thank me for giving them a good book. Books have the power to bring out emotions, sensitivities, and reasons in this profession. Maybe that’s why those who want to harm us will never be able to defeat us despite all their efforts. Those who don’t read will get stuck sooner or later. We Kurds read a lot.”
Hasan, in his seventies, sits among books in his library in Derik. “Books are the most powerful weapon there is,” he says, betraying typical Kurdish pride. We have been living in war in Rojava for 10 years. Turkey is now the biggest threat after repelling ISIS, but Iran has also started to look threatening in recent days, attempting some attacks in Deir ez-Zor, on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River. It is a strategic point in the broader conflict between regional powers and local Kurdish-led forces in Syria.
I’m walking around Rojava with a Turkish UAV on my head
Iran’s attacks have been repelled, but a worrying sign remains. The Rojava experience is perceived as a great danger to the outside world. It was in Iran that Kurdish women began to protest the compulsory wearing of the headscarf. That is why Iranian women are chanting the slogan “women, life and freedom”, coined by PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been held incommunicado in Turkey for 25 years.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is also launching daily attacks in Rojava and Northern Iraq in August 2024. Special forces and mercenaries that ISIS no longer has on its payroll are being used in the Afrin canton. They are causing deaths and serious injuries with drones. They are so silent that you don’t even notice one above your head when you watch closely how a car hit by a rocket fired from a drone shrinks. They are inaudible or invisible, but they can be deadly if they are not busy taking souvenir photos.
Erdogan’s snipers continue to kill
In Kobane, the symbol of resistance against ISIS, three Kurdish soldiers traveling in a car, a farmer working the land and some civilians, who knows who, were killed in the last six months. One of the leaders of the Sara movement, which fights against gender-based violence, was seriously injured while traveling in a car with her husband, suffering the same consequences. In February, it was the turn of commander Sorxwîn Rojhilat. She was also killed by a drone.
The Kurds and those who have undertaken the struggle to sow the seeds of democracy, participation, equality and freedom in this region have not relied solely on weapons to defend themselves. Books, culture and art are indispensable elements for the preservation of the past and the construction of the future. As the production of music videos and products for cinema has also kept up with the times. We had the opportunity to visit six production houses in different cities of this besieged region.
Directors and actors work to remember the war
There are those from Komina Film in Amuda. They are rebuilding the city’s cinema thanks to the contributions of the independent Italian company ZaLab and Bologna Tpo. Most of the productions are broadcast either on the Rudaw satellite channel, which is followed by Kurds all over the world, or on the YouTube channels of collectives and other production companies. We are not talking about amateur cinema, far from it. The quality of these productions is not something to envy for many of the productions we watch on Netflix.
Hunergeha Welat’s are real studios, modern and equipped, in a very large structure. There are sets, studios for music and sound recording, editing rooms and everything you can think of that is needed to make a film. Mahmud Berazi is a famous composer of lyrics and music. The artist, whose songs are very popular among Kurds all over the world, explains the role of cinema in relation to what is happening in Rojava. “First of all, it serves to tell our story today. Who can do this better than us? It is a golden moment for cinema in Rojava. People want to distract themselves, but they also want to know our reality, to see our stories. Fiction, series, also serve to convey both our understanding of society and the situation we live in to as many people as possible. Look where we are, it is as if we are everywhere but not in a place where there is war,” he says, pouring us tea in a scenario that makes us think of everything except bombs and drones.
Investing in schools and academies: this is how talent is born
After about 250 km from the Hassake canton to the Derik canton, we come across Osman Kurtelan. He is also a very popular, absolutely versatile director and actor. In one series, he plays a politician who is hostile to the Kurds in Turkey, and in another series, he plays Aziz, one of the most popular characters in comedy. “A Kurdish child who grows up receives that great legacy, which is our history, from adults. And while this is happening, our history is also developing. In the past, we used words, songs, theater, today we focus on visual language, which is more suitable for visual language. Nothing can be more political than art in our time,” he tells us.
In this context, the girls and boys living here have unimaginable opportunities. The schools are not only functional, they also have very nice and functional buildings. Dropping out of school is a little-known phenomenon in Rojava, and a plague in Syria. There are not only schools, but also cultural centers called academies where you can do many activities when there is no school or during holidays. You can see a concrete example of what is done in the academies when you enter or walk through the corridors or stairs. There are pictures and paintings on the walls; the work of young people who frequently visit these centers.
Reborn cities where singing and dancing are mandatory
When you enter you can always hear singing and playing. It is very difficult to find someone in this region who does not know how to play an instrument. The tambur, a type of guitar with four strings, is the most played type. After World War I, when Kurdistan was completely divided, Kurdish culture was banned in all four countries that shared it. Today, speaking and writing Kurdish is still forbidden in Iran and Turkey. Therefore, language and music are important.
There are centuries-old songs that have changed appearance thousands of times, arranged by each artist as they wish. However, there are many recent productions. “Bella Ciao”, which represents a universal hymn of freedom for the Kurds, is never missing from the song repertoire. They sing both in Kurdish and in their own Italian. Those who do not sing or dance. But then we change.
But Turkish soldiers are still firing on Kobani
There is no academy, or even school, without an open football and volleyball field. These activities, both educational and extra, are also guaranteed to many young children who are left without families. The orphanages are organized in such a way that they are not deprived of what they need to grow up. Among the best organized are Raqqa and Kobane, two of the cities most marked by these years of war. In Raqqa, the little ones always approach music by playing the flute, a type of flute, the traditional instrument of the migratory shepherds of this region, while in Kobane the tambour is the most popular instrument.
On the opposite side of the school, academy and orphanage is the Kobanê Municipality Building. Look at the Turkish border. Erdoğan’s soldiers are firing from there at this building, loaded with high-caliber bullets. There are also very new ones. “Turkey is attacking infrastructure, blocking water from the Tigris by closing dams, putting cities like Hasakah in a difficult situation, carrying out targeted assassinations with drones, attacking the Afrin canton for seven years, killing civilians and no one is there.” Why were there once a number of journalists who wanted to tell our story? Where is the international community? Kobanê Co-Mayor Rewşen Ebdi leaves us with this question.
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Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
