TAJÊ condemns Turkish operation, salutes guerrilla resistance in South Kurdistan

Yazidi women's movement TAJÊ condemned the Turkish occupation operation in South Kurdistan and saluted the guerrilla resistance against it. "It is our children who are fighting. It was them who saved us from annihilation," the organization said.

Last Friday, the Turkish army launched a new ground operation in the regions of Avashin, Metina and Zap in the guerrilla-controlled Medya Defense Zones. Turkish incursions are also intensifying in the autonomous regions of northern and eastern Syria, and the Shengal region continues to be threatened by the government in Ankara.

Members of the Yazidi women's liberation movement (TAJÊ, Tevgera Azadiya Jinên Êzidî) and mothers of martyrs made a statement in the Khanasor (Xanesor) town of Shengal (Sinjar) and condemned the Turkish occupation operation in the Medya Defense Zones.

The statement read by Pakiza Celal saluted the guerrilla resistance against occupation operation and said, “As Yazidi mothers, we condemn the attacks on Rojava, Shengal and guerrilla. Shengal and Rojava are targeted by attacks of all kinds because of their resistance. The occupiers are especially attacking the areas where people organise basing on the idea of Leader Apo (Abdullah Öcalan). They are trying to prevent this idea from spreading and the society from organizing with this idea.”

Pointing out to the progress and development experienced by the Yazidi people thanks to Öcalan’s idea and philosophy, the statement continued: "As Shengal mothers whose hearts are burning, we want to avoid other mothers feeling this pain. We take every attack on the free mountains as an attack on ourselves. Because it was the guerrillas there that saved us from the last ferman (genocide). We see those who are fighting at this moment in Zap, Metina and Avashin as our children, and we salute their resistance.”

“We also consider the attacks on Rojava as aggression against Shengal because it was Rojava mothers who saved our children from certain death in the August 3 genocide,” the statement added.

TAJÊ called on the Iraqi central government in Baghdad to act against the threats from Ankara and military attacks. The Yazidi mothers also criticized the death sentence given to four Yazidis ordered last week by an Iraqi court in Mosul.

The men under the age of 20 are accused of a double murder of two members of the Arab Shammar tribe. They themselves contradict the accusations. "This verdict shows us that there is basically no difference between the governments of Turkey and Iraq," Pakiza Celal said. She called upon the people to resist treatment such as this.