Kurdistan Women’s Communities (KJK) Coordination has issued a statement strongly condemning the savage attacks of ISIS on communities and cultures in the Middle East. KJK called on all the different ethnic and religious communities and primarily women to form self-defence forces and to get organised.

KJK stressed in its statement that ISIS has become the biggest threat created by capitalist barbarism against the historic and cultural existence and values of communities. “Capitalism that cuts off people from historical, social and cultural human values and compels them to a deep individualism has created an organisation like ISIS that it can use anytime and put into war against the people”, said the statement, adding that ISIS primarily targets women who are the most fundamental carriers of these human values and that it is by no means random. 

The statement further stressed the multicultural and pluralist structure of the Middle East, saying that ISIS is hostile to the common values created throughout history by Kurdish, Assyrian, Chaldean, Armenian, Turkish, Persian, Azeri and Arab communities living together. The statement said ISIS hostility against women is the climax but at the same time the starting point of the collapse of dominant systems.

Drawing attention to the destruction of artefacts in the museum in Mosul by ISIS, calling it a perversion and hatred, KJK added that it is the result of desperation in the face of popular resistance. KJK strongly condemned the monstrous barbarism of ISIS.

KJK also saluted the successful operations of the Kurdish forces in Tal Hamis and Sinjar, pointing out that the defeats ISIS suffered there were an important turning point as regards the collapse of the gangs after the victory in Kobane. The statement stressed that it is the frustration and the feeling of desperation after these defeats that make ISIS all the more barbaric.

KJK Coordination said the ISIS gangs, suffering heavy blows at the hands of joint operations by YPG/YPJ forces and the Assyrian and Arab communities in the region, have resorted to abducting hundreds of women and children from one of the oldest communities of the region, the Assyrians, and imposes savage cruelties on them.

Saluting the resistance of the Assyrian people shoulder to shoulder with the YPG/YPJ fighters and the 7 Assyrians who fell in battle, KJK commemorated  the martyrs of Tal Tamir. The statement pointed out that a joint struggle for democracy and freedom against reactionary and fascist forces sets an example for the fraternity of the people, stressing that the strongest example of this fraternity has been demonstrated in the Kobane resistance to which countless internationalist fighters joined to fight against the barbaric ISIS gangs. KJK commemorated Ashley Johnson in that regard and offered condolences to the Australian people, saying that comrade Ashley fell in the fight for humanity becoming a source of honour for the Kurdish people.

The KJK Coordination lastly reiterated its call to all the peoples of the region, and all the different ethnic and religious communities, and primarily to women to raise consciousness, equip themselves and to organise in order to become able to carry out self-defence.