The following article was first published in Yeni Özgür Politika. We have translated it into English, lightly edited for clarity.
We are used to protesting against a dam, but having to defend one is probably an irony of history. We are a movement that has fought against dams for years so that rivers can flow freely, to prevent historical sites being submerged, and to ensure the environmental and historical fabric of the land is undamaged, and we are a movement that supports such struggles. A dam that once submerged the oldest Neolithic sites of the region has now become the site of another resistance.
The construction of the Tishreen (Tişrîn) Dam began in 1991 and was completed in 1999, and is now being defended by the people of North and East Syria with all their might against attacks by the Turkish state. As in other examples around the world, this dam too caused serious damage to the historical and environmental fabric of the land. Girê Sor (also called Tell Ahmar or Tell Barsip), which was submerged when the Tishreen Dam was built, was one of the most important Neolithic settlements from 9200-8700 BC. Other places that were submerged were Tell Halula, Tell Sabi Abyad and Tell Buqras, all historical sites from the peak of the Neolithic period, around 7000 BC. Traces of the transition to agriculture and the domestication of animals, and a very small portion of the adobe house structures and Halaf-style pottery were saved in excavations conducted just before the dam was built. These remains were also artefacts belonging to the first women’s revolution.
Places have memories: the tradition of resistance
While the Baath regime that submerged that history under water has now collapsed and gone, in the last 13 years, the Middle East’s second women’s revolution has been taking root in these same places through the ideas of the Kurdish leader Apo (Abdullah Öcalan). This revolution flourished from these historical roots, and the people who defended it against ISIS in Kobanê (Kobani) ten years ago are now defending it against the occupation of the Turkish state and its hired gangs. This brief historical narrative also shows that lands and places have memories. Time after time cultures have been established and destroyed on the same lands and have come back to flourish again. The tradition of communal life created by the ancient peoples of the region, though submerged under the waters of the Euphrates, is this tradition of historical memory and resistance that has given rise to the signs of the women’s revolution.
The price of Kobani
As the region is being redesigned in World War III, a relentless struggle is being waged in favour of the option of freedom for the people. Tishreen (Tişrîn) has become a symbol of a highly significant civil society action that could go down in world history, and carry the Revolutionary People’s War* to its peak.
We hear again the voice of Ayşe Efendi, who, during the Kobanê resistance, expressed the shocking cost of freedom: “Qelendê Kobanê xwîne” (The price of Kobani is blood), this time in Tishreen: “A revolutionary people’s war is not organised, it [just] happens!”
Tishreen: A badge of patriotism
Engineers, artists, teachers, women’s rights activists, university students, Kurds and Arabs from all sectors of society, have been martyred in the resistance, which has now been going on for over three weeks. More than two hundred people have been injured. As each new group that goes to the dam watch takes its position, those injured in the previous group are transported to hospitals amid air strikes.
People lying on the ground covered in blood make the victory sign and chant the slogan “We are bigger than death!” The wounded discharged fromhospital want to go not to their homes, but back to guard duty. Laughing under the air strikes, dancing the halay [Kurdish folk dance] and ululating have become symbols of resistance. The people of North and East Syria at the Tishreen Dam wear injuries to their bodies as a symbol of patriotism.
Defending their lands
The resistance, where the people and warriors sacrifice themselves in spirit, complement each other and refuse the enemy passage, is turning into a voluntary stand that surpasses the resistances of Kobanê, Efrîn (Afrin)and Serekanî (Ras al-Ayn). When Serekanî was occupied, the Alok (Alouk) Dam, which provided the drinking water for the city of Hesekê (Hasakah), was seized by gangs supported by the Turkish state. The city of Hesekê, where 1.5 million people live, has been living on transported bottled water for six years. “The mill cannot turn on bottled water,” they say, but more than a million people in the city are resisting in this way.
So the people of the region know better than anyone the consequences if the Turkish state were to seize the Tishreen Dam. If they were to seize the largest dam in the region, there would be nothing to stop them taking control of the region’s water and electricity, strengthening their strategic position in the region and seizing other cities.
The people of the region are aware of these realities, and with the lessons they have learned from the past, are defending their lands.
A barrier to colonialism and special war!
As a result, this resistance has much to say to those who know how to see, feel and understand. Brains that have been atrophied and hearts that have become hardened and insensible by the bombardment of the special war, cannot understand the people who make the victory sign in blood and race to join the resistance as if the light of truth is burning there. They cannot comprehend why those people see taking part in that resistance as a patriotic duty. Tishreen is no longer just a barrier holding back water; it serves as a barrier against colonialism, special war and all kinds of plans being made for the region. It is now a dam of martyrs, a monument to the Revolutionary People’s War…
*The concept of Revolutionary People’s War roots in Öcalan’s rose theory and revolutionary popular resistance, this ideology prioritises self-defence and collective action.
Zozan Sîma is a journalist and researcher based in North and East Syria (Rojava). She regularly writes articles and conducts research on Jineolojî and Kurdish feminism, with a particular focus on oral history and the study of gender equality in past Kurdish societies.
