The invasion attacks launched against Afrin by the Turkish state and Al Qaeda/ISIS gangs are on day 36. For over a month, the ongoing resistance has shown the strength of a people organized from fronts to the neighborhoods. Afrin has turned into a women’s resistance grounds with the sacrificial spirit of Avesta Xabur and Barin Kobanê,.

YPJ Commander Destina Kobanê has spoken to ANF about the latest situation there.

“HERE THERE IS FRATERNITY, THAT IS WHAT THE ATTACKS ARE GEARED TOWARDS”

“As the name implies, this is a resistance that will leave its mark on history and this age. The Afrin resistance should not be confused with other resistances, here there is a superhuman resistance that doesn’t resemble any other,” said Kobanê and added that the resistance advances against all kinds of attacks with each day.

Kobanê said the Afrin resistance doesn’t just interest Afrin and Kurds: “Afrin isn’t resisting just for Kurds. The resistance here is for all peoples. There are not just Kurdish people living here, Arabs, Turkmens and other peoples are here as well. The resistance here is the apex of the Rojava resistance. Throughout history, Afrin has always been a place where various peoples lived together in peace. We can see reflections of this in the resistance ranks today. There is an attack by invaders who can’t tolerate the presence of peoples with their own faiths and colorful cultures here, and there is a glorious resistance against that.”

“THE WHOLE WORLD WATCHES THE INVASION”

Kobanê criticized the silence of the international community in the face of the invasion and said: “The Turkish state and their gangs are attacking the peoples here with all kinds of technology and immoral and inhuman methods. There is supposedly some ethics to war, but here you can’t even see that in the invaders’ attacks. Today, everybody sees this inhuman war, but they only watch. Afrin is displaying this popular resistance against these invaders and their attacks destroying humanity, in front of the whole world. Let’s put aside the military resistance, just the strength, the resistance of the people must be noted down in history. Think about it, jets and tanks target and kill innocent children. What crime did those children have? They just wanted to live with their families on their own lands with their own culture. Then jets came along, and murdered the children playing in their villages, their fields, their streets. Where will we look for morality in this war? How can we expect ethical war from this enemy? And states, so-called human rights institutions, the whole world just watch. They just watch, and whoever comes out on top they take position accordingly.”

“ANYONE SILENT IN THE FACE OF THE INVASION IS A PART OF IT”

“It’s not just the invading Turkish state that is immoral here, it is all international powers that say they have human rights and rules for war,” said Kobanê and continued: “The Coalition, Russia, the Regime, they are all concerned for their own prestige and they just watch. They wait to see who will come out on top. But they should know that none of them have any prestige in the eyes of this people. The people see them as forces who support terrorism. That is the truth, the people are looking from the right place and they can see it. Those who don’t see the people living on their own lands and negotiate with invaders are partners to invaders, in the eyes of the people.”

“WE’VE KNOWN THE TURKISH STATE FOR AGES”

“We have the advantage that we know the enemy historically and in the contemporary sense,” said Kobanê and continued: “Since the day it was founded, the Turkish state has always been an invader, they never belonged in these lands. They came from Asia, they accepted Islam as a tool. Since Ottoman times, they existed on these lands as invasion forces. This is a fact, anyone can look at history. They used Islam as a tool to make their invasion on these lands permanent.

But at the core of the faith of these lands, at the core of Islam there is humanity, and faith in humanity. Look at the methods ISIS uses, they are the same that the Turkish state has used throughout history: Abusing history, invasion, looting, massacres. It is not right to see the Turkish state as a force that is newly attempting an invasion, they have a history of this.”

“THERE IS A WAR OF WILLS HERE”

Kobanê spoke about the latest developments in the front and called the events a war of wills: “Looking at the resistance by the YPG/YPJ that has continued for over a month, we see a glorious resistance that words fail to describe, with few precedents in history. The children of these lands are using their bodies as shields against tanks, artilleries and jets.”

“WOMEN PUT THEIR MARK ON THE RESISTANCE OF THE AGE”

Kobanê said the women have put their mark on the Resistance of the Age: “The resistance of women is waged to establish the existence of the truth, to establish their own existence and to break the invaders. Women lead the resistance. This is not propaganda, look, those who resist in the fronts, those who never abandon their homes and streets, those who work the hardest and lead the most are all women. Because women see themselves in the continuation of this system. We reached day 31 with the heroism of women who resisted with their Kalashnikovs against the immoral enemy that used all kinds of technology and who used their bodies as a shield. This can be seen in the person of martyrs Avesta and Barin Viyan and many other comrades. You can see this if you spend half an hour with any comrade in the fronts. Women have more faith in this resistance, they know that the YPG/YPJ are forces that protect them. A place where women resist this much will not fall, that is why Afrin has already prevailed. Women are in a resistance that means the caravan of truth.”

CALL ON THE GANGS: “SURRENDER TO THE YPJ”

Kobanê called on the gangs used by the Turkish state and told them to surrender with their dignity: “We as the YPJ are calling on the gangs. We see in the fronts, the Turkish state opens the gates and set them loose on us, their lives have no worth or dignity. I’ve seen it many times, they immediately kill those who go back. Instead of accepting such an undignified life, instead of fighting in Syria as invasion forces for others, they should come and surrender to the YPJ. They should surrender to this people, they can be sure that we will have more mercy than the Turkish state. This is how they can save their dignity. History will only forgive them this way.”

THANKING THE PEOPLE OF AFRIN

Pointing to the resistance the people of Afrin have waged for over a month, Destina concluded her words with: “YPG/YPJ, Asayish, self defense forces, the people as a whole - Afrin has been resisting. I would especially like to thank the resistance of the people. They have become part of the resistance when they refused to abandon their lands in the face of tanks, artilleries and jets. They are martyred, but they don’t leave their lands. This is the glorious resistance of the people. They stand against the invasion with their bodies. I salute their resistance, we are fighting to the last drop of our blood to be worthy of them. We will prevail together. History has always shown that all invaders are temporary, we are the children of this land. Afrin belongs to people who live here, their resistance is significant. Our military resistance will continue in the fronts, and our resistance as people will continue in life.