In a recent interview, Aldar Xelil, a member of the Co-Presidency Council of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), spoke about the upcoming local elections in North and East Syria and the recent ongoing attacks of the Turkish state against the region. Xelil clarified that the Turkish state wants to deepen the war and the crisis in the region and said that “If we fight against the attacks with the spirit of Kobane, we will be able to defend our achievements.”
He started by pointing out the reasons for the ongoing Turkish attacks on North and East Syria, saying that “the Turkish Republic was founded on the extermination of the Kurds” and that because of that, “the Turkish state sees its existence in the destruction of the democratic project”.
Xelil also explained that the Kurdish people rightfully live on these lands, as “archaeological studies and historical research show that on these lands the civilisation was build up by these people” and that the Turkish state is “scared of this reality” as these studies show that these lands do not belong to the Turkish state.
The PYD member claimed that the Turkish state aims to build up a ‘Great Turkey’, which means regaining the control over countries that were under the control of the Ottoman Empire before World War I. To achieve this aim, Xelil said that the Turkish state, “On the one hand wants to claim Kurdish territories and destroy the Kurdish existence in these territories and on the other hand they want to expand the borders of the Turkish state.”
Furthermore, he also made it clear that the Turkish state wants to prevent the establishment of a democratic system in Syria by supporting armed groups in the northeast and other parts of Syria, which he said have also recently been sent to fight in Somalia, Libya and Azerbaijan.
About the upcoming elections in North and East Syria which were recently postponed to August, he mentioned the ‘social contract’, which was developed by a commission out of 158 people from different societal organisations and structures over the course of the last two years and accepted at the end of 2023. The contract is intended to regulate the peaceful coexistence of the different peoples in North and East Syria. The local elections are supposed to be the first step of it being put into practice, with the ultimate goal being “the reorganisation of the communes and councils of the society”, said Xelil.
Xelil continued to explain that the Turkish state claims that the elections will “split Syria”, but that local elections also took place when northeast Syria was still under the control of the Damascus regime, and that the upcoming elections differ from the previous ones because they will be held in a democratic and decentral way. “Turkey doesn’t want the will of the people to show”, Xelil said, clarifying that the people of North and East Syria are “proud of their democratic project” and that they “want the elections to take place to be a democratic example for the whole region”.
To conclude the interview, Xelil stated that 25 June is the anniversary of ISIS’ attack on the city of Kobane and highlighted the “big changes the resistance of Kobane achieved”. He saluted the fighters that defended Kobane against ISIS attacks and “the wounded and all those who supported the resistance” and remembered the “martyrs of the resistance who fought selflessly”.
“They really changed history”, he emphasised, calling on to the people of North and East Syria to “continue the struggle with the spirit of Kobane”. He concluded by saying that “We [the people of North and East Syria] still have an enemy, difficult times are ahead of us” but that he knows that “we will achieve even greater victories and we will be able to protect our achievements”.
