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For days, the Turkish Air Force has been launching attacks on Rojava. Every evening, the sound of the jets’ engines is heard, followed shortly by the impact of their bombs. The infrastructure of the entire region has already suffered extensive damage, and some has been completely destroyed. The morale and resistance shown by the civilian population to what is happening and what lies ahead is exemplary. It can make you forget the scope of these attacks for a moment, when you look into the bright eyes of a child or hear the tremor in the voice of an angry mother, who throws curses that youve never heard at the fascists.
Now the news has reached us that the impact we heard nearby last night was an airstrike on an academy of the anti-drug unit of the internal security forces, the Asayîş. Twenty-nine comrades were martyred in the attack, and nearly as many were injured, some of them seriously.
We should not be surprised that these attacks are hitting us now, but it is important to understand their background in order to be able to give a strong, organized response. In order to draw strength from this instead of falling into a state of shock, in order to advance forward and bring the enemy to its knees.
The massacre of the members of the anti-drug unit is a culmination of the attacks of the last few days. For months, these units have been fighting the drug trade in a widespread community which is an important financial pillar for the Assad regime and especially for Turkey’s Islamist mercenary gangs in the occupied areas of Efrîn, Girê Spî and Serêkaniyê, in a widespread campaign. In addition to its economic significance, the spread of drugs is a particularly vile method of weakening a war-torn and traumatized society and attacking its resistance. Against these dirty practices, the 29 martyrs and their comrades have sworn an oath to fight until their last breath for the freedom of their fellow human beings.
With the choice of October 9 as the date, the strategic goal of this attack, as well as the entire campaign of airstrikes of those days, became even clearer. On October 9, 1998, the international conspiracy against Rêber APO, whose lifelong efforts and unbroken resistance are reflected, among others, in the construction of the Asayîş, began.
With his kidnapping, the Kurdish society that had been revived, its resistance and the emerging internationalization of the revolutionary struggle were to be destroyed once and for all.
However, even after 25 years, Rêber APO, in total isolation, is making historic resistance and has not only nullified the attack of the capitalist system, he has gone beyond the prison walls and made his vision for a new, free and beautiful life bear fruit all over the world. Nevertheless, the 9, October is today a thorn in our chest, which we can pull out only by gaining the physical freedom Rêber APOs.
The blow inflicted on the liberation struggle then should be repeated today on its anniversary and, like October 9, 1998, remain in the collective memory of the struggling people of Kurdistan and the world. The attacks of the last days aim at the same goal as then: the total destruction of the revolution, but above all the continuation of the genocide against the Kurdish population of the region.
The only answer to this murderous policy remains resistance! In the person of Rêber APO, we have a clear line how to confront it. The heart of the struggle is Kurdistan, the veins of our resistance have been pulsating all over the globe for a long time. Let us stand up against Turkish fascism and organize on the line of Rêber APO! Every attack on Rojava is an attack on this line, on our revolution, our perspective of a life in freedom! RiseUp4Rojava!
Internationalist Commune of Rojava,
10.10.2023