This is probably the first English text i write around here but here goes.
There is a war… a long exhausting, horrible and complicated war going on in the Middle East. We’ve all heard about it, it is the war in Syria.
And this war started some years ago and then grew, and grew and never stopped growing. I have spent some of the past time of my last 3 years watching this war unfolding, the reason being that i have many syrian acquaintances and i had a fair understanding in regards of that country.
When i heard of a revolution there I knew it is going to be bad for every man ever born there. Because i knew that it was not a revolution unfolding but the start of a civil war.
Most of the Syrians i have met previous to this were very proud of their country. They never failed to remind me that their country is tolerant and that many religions live there side by side. That Damascus is beautiful and Alep is rich. And that they have a strong leader and it is safe.
Now i hope that my last sentence did not disgust you and neither did it inflame you, i am explaining to you what i have heard from them, i have a very complex opinion of the man right now and it is not a clear picture for me.
During the unfolding of the conflict groups started showing up, alliances based on regional and then ethno-religious lines. Then outside countries started intervening and here is the perfect recipe for disaster.
And this country, and those people who were once so prowd of being a cohesive nation started killing each other.
Russia had a base in Tartous, they backed Assad and the national army. Assad was not sunni and the majority of the country is, conservative muslim states saw this as unjust. Assad is Alawi, a offshoot of shia, Iran got involved. Border regions of lebanon started getting attacked because they were shia, Hezbollah got involved.
Obama had to get involved at some point. In the avalanche of springs going off in the Arab world his aids forgot to take into consideration the ethnic element, the religious element and the political element and the secular issue.
Fanatics started appearing on all sides and shit got real really really fast. At the start everyone thought it is going to be a matter of months. But I and most Syrians knew that this will be a very, very long and brutal war that will split the country to pieces.
On this background, the Kurd and the Christians kind of got in the middle of things. Made to chose sides. The Kurds took the smart decision and threw everyone off their land and forbid any armed group to enter their area. Except Alepo where they are in the middle of things in the North they threw all armed forces out. At the beginning the proud SAA tried fighting for a bit but since they were aware of the ethnic cohesion there and they had much bigger problems they gave up quickly. At some point the FSA tried to assert themselves there. They learned the hard way that the Kurd were serious and considered them enemies.
However all this time every ethnic or religious group knew that they can find a safe area there, because the kurds themselves are of different religions and they do not discriminate.
For most of the conflict the Rojava, as the Kurdish part of Syria calls itself was safe, organised and peaceful.
The syrian kurds, as they learned from others started to get organised and prepare for war in order to have peace. The PKK was quick to salute them and PYD became dominant. YPG and YPJ became the army (acronyms representing the self defense popular forces of the men ending in G and women J) For the first time a serious fighting force made up of women appeared in the middle east. Shure some would argue that there are also females in the Syrian army and with the mujaheddin but the reality is they are minimal and symbolic as opposed to the YPJ which is a regular army, front line material, whoo-ha trained to kill and ready to die force.
And there were amazing steps in that region. Human rights reps were there giving guidance and the leaders there were heading their advice, accepting criticism and cooperating with them.
And now… and now.
Something stirred in the East and after this much fighting and war and injustice daesh started catching roots and spreading. In reality daesh started offering security and resources.Law and order. And in exchange they demanded that people are more religious. In a religious countryside such as the one in Syria this was not a shock. People there have dificulties understanding what democracy is all about, they prefer food and safety. Plus daesh is religious and seemingly invincible and righteous in their view so they gave in.
And then daesh started expanding.
And then they reached the kurdish area. And all that safe heaven that the kurds built went to hell, real quick.
But the kurds have tasted that freedom, and that is like a drug, once you have it, you never stop thinking about it. And so, unlike many other groups that are fed up with war, where they only fight to the point that the chance to win is too small the kurdish militias pulled back to Kobane and waited for war to come to them.
And while waiting they decided to send all who wanted to leave out and only the defenders and the really stubborn remained. The ones that decided NO MORE.
No more running, no more bowed heads, no more taking orders from others. Many of them swore an oath to live free or die. Ελευθερία ή θάνατος, give me liberty or give me death, أفضل القتلى من الرقيق. That so much life was there in freedom and so right that they will have it with the risk of their existence.
Now the daesh is at their doorstep, they held them off for 26 days with an army 5 times the size that took over Mosul and they are still there. And they will be there until they are dead, or they are free.
This is the portrait of the hero in any epic. This is what the world was looking for to hope and to rise against inequity and hatred. FSA fights alongside them. SAA wants to bomb the daesh but they lack the capability. There is every reason to believe that if there is one chance to unite this enemies for a common cause: to defend those that stand up for their lives and land against common enemy then mayme, just maby when they will sit toghether at the negotiating table with one thing in common.
IF daesh is to be defeated, it must start here. And it must start now.
Daesh is not an enemy you can defeat on the battlefield, they are in your cities, on the internet, conspiring on the your street corner and on the internet.
And their whole success is based on coagulating hatred and appearing as God-chosen. In the eyes of their followers they are righteous, invincible and just.
And this is a chance to turn this arround:
1. They portray themselves as protecting the sunni muslims- Most of the kurds are sunni
2. They portray themselves as fighting evil dictators (Assad, Maliki) – Kurds have been opressed by the regime more than anyone else in that country
3. They portray themselves as defenders of the weak- women are fighting with them, and elderly and teenagers
4.They portray themselves as military geniouses-they could not take that city with a supperiour force way better armed
5. They portray themselves as invincible and thus Divinely protected -that is what you have to disprove and the only way to do that is to arm the Kurds.
Point number 5 is tricky. Because they bust be so soundly defeated that the whole invincibility cloak must vanish. And to do that the Turks with their massive army must not get involved. Because if they do they will be given the benefit of the doubt. But if the kurds defeat them: a rag-tag inferior army with no chance on paper, with no outside connections and without any friends in big places than that will be for them what they managed to do in Mosul.
Arm the kurds in Kobane. and do it now. Not tomorrow, not later, not after consensus, NOW.
I have spent about 2 hours writing my bit in defense of the Kurd, of honesty, of justice, of good and most importantly Humanity. I have no Kurdish friends, never met one to my knowledge. I am now afraid to go on twitter and to read the news. I don’t want this horrid fairy tale to be a drama, i want it to be like in my grandmother’s stories where good vanquishes evil in spite all the hardships. I want them to live and be happy, this heroes of mine.
Do not shatter their hope. At least not this once.
Cand eram noi batrani 