International YPG &YPJ fighters gave a statement regarding the attacks of the Turkish stat
YPJ-International: Declaration regarding the ongoing attacks of the Turkish state on the
liberated areas of Rojava
On Friday the 22nd of July 2022, three of our female comrades, the YAT commander Jiyan
Tolhildan, the YPJ commander Roj Xabûr and the YAT member fighter Barîn Botan, were
assassinated by a Turkish drone attack. This is only the peak of an ongoing strategy that is spreading
an atmosphere of terror and fear. Especially women are becoming repeatedly targets of those
coward attempts. Within 48 hours, six of our comrades, among them four members of the YPJ were
killed and various others were injured by four drone attacks on the territory of Rojava. These
incidents are in line with 56 drone attacks that happened just in the year 2022 and caused the death
of 27 people and injured 74 more. Among the dead and wounded there are our comrades as well as
civilians of every age and gender.
While Turkey is officially threatening with a full scale invasion on the liberated areas of North and
East Syria, they are continuing their attacks that actually never stopped after the occupation of Afrin
in 2018. What we are facing is a so-called low intensity warfare, a military strategy that uses a
variety of different tactics including extrajudicial killings, the support and using of proxy groups
(like SNA, ISIS), economical pressure, cutting off water and electricity supply, demographic change
and psychological warfare instead of a full scale military operation. This kind of warfare produces
continuing attacks while keeping it under the level of a “full scale war” that would provoke bigger
political and media attention in Western societies. The countless attacks attempt to normalize war
and make the people to get used to those attacks. It creates a state of insecurity.
Those attacks are not single cases, but part of a well planed, bigger strategy that aims to destroy the
revolution and eradicate the Kurdish people. By using drone attacks, like the one that killed three of
our comrades on Friday, it tries to spread the feeling that no one is safe and that the Turkish state
has the absolute power to decide when and where your life will end, by just using a simple button
that makes the bomb drop. The psychological effect of this strategy is effective in the way that it
can make people want to leave their land. One of the aims of Erdogan is exactly this: to expel the
Kurdish people from their land and settle foreign population loyal to the Turkish regime instead.
Another tactics that the Turkish state is using is to carry out so called false flag operations. In the
recent attacks of the Turkish state on a holiday resort in Zaxo in Southern Kurdistan (Northern
Iraq), nine tourists got killed, among them a child, and over 23 got injured. The Turkish state
released a statement saying that the attack was done by the PKK. With accusing others for being
guilty of its own attacks the Turkish state is creating a reason to legitimate its military presence and
actions. This military approach is not just limited on the attack on Rojava. Moreover the Turkish
state is using the various methods of low intensity warfare against all liberated areas of Kurdistan
including Shengal, Maxmur and the Guerrilla-controlled areas in the mountains of North, East and
South Kurdistan.
Besides the majority of the worldwide media, that is ignoring the ongoing attacks, we observed that
also the solidarity movement with Rojava is mostly waiting for a so-called “Day X” to start a bigger
campaign against a fascist regime that actually never stopped its war on Rojava. We consider this as
a insufficient approach that is not going along with the situation we are facing here. The answer of
the ongoing, various and brutal attack on the revolution has to be permanent, creative and effective
resistance. There is no point of waiting, we are in war right now.
While we are writing this statement we are moved by deep anger and rage that the last attacks
caused. With the last attack three friends were torn from our midst. You were our commanders, our
teachers, our sisters, our pioneers and vanguards, our friends and comrades. You were helping so
many of us to find their place in this revolution, to develop and grow and to get to know the reality
of female strength and willpower. You were teaching us to use our love as well as our pain to fightfor our future. Knowing that the Turkish state is aiming to destroy our spirit, we encounter this by
converting the anger and grief into even higher commitment to continue the struggle against this
murderous regime. We are higher motivated than ever to develop and spread the women’s revolution
and in this way continue the struggle of our beloved, fallen comrades.
To our friends around the world, we ask you to stand up and defend with us the women’s revolution.
We need to uncover the dirty plan of the Turkish state and treat its attack as it is: a war against a
revolutionary project that especially targets revolutionary women. On of the most urgent demands is
a No-Fly-Zone to stop the deadly air attacks on our comrades and people.
Besides that we have to understand, that this war is not only about Turkish invasion plans but
includes a lot of multiple interests of the Western states and the NATO in the Middle East. The
struggle in Kurdistan is always connected to the struggles in our homelands. To build up a strong
and resistant self-defense, we have to attack the gory system of nation state, patriarchy and
capitalism anytime and everywhere.
Ape Yusuf Gulo,
Mohammed and Ahmet
Heval Geli and Heval Amed,
Heval Mizgin,
Heval Dilar, Heval Ronahî and Heval Kobane,
Heval Berxwedan and Heval Kendal,
Heval Jiyan, Heval Roj and Heval Barîn,
We promise you that we will not just defend this beautiful revolution by any means necessary but
that we will spread it and make it even more grow. We will do everything to make your ideas of
freedom come true!
To the Turkish state and its allies we want to let them know that we will not let these attacks
unanswered. We will make you pay for your crimes and avenge our comrades!
YPJ International
Rojava, 24.7.2022
