The Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), the region also known as Rojava, is based on the principle of coexistence and the unity of peoples and their destiny, said the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the leading political party among Syrian Kurds, in a statement on the 10th anniversary of the declaration of cantonal autonomy in the region.
The statement stressed that the administration, in accordance with its social contract, represents the aspirations of the various components of North and East Syria, including Kurds, Arabs, Syriacs, Assyrians, Armenians, Turkmen, Circassians and Chechens. It aims to establish a moral and political system that includes all these groups, under a leadership including free women and revolutionary youth.
The DAANES is divided into several self-governing regions. The Afrin (Efrîn), Jazira (Cizîrê) and Euphrates (Firatê) regions emerged from the cantons established in January 2014 during the Syrian civil war. Over time, these three cantons have been reorganised to form three distinct regions, each consisting of subordinate cantons, areas, districts and municipalities.
Reflecting on the circumstances and reasons for the establishment of the AANES, the PYD noted that it was initiated at a time when Syrians were facing violence and displacement at the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS). The political forces led by the PYD played a key role in laying the foundations for the project of autonomous administration in North and East Syria. After the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) liberated these regions from the extremist group, the DAANES project expanded to include the regions of Raqqa, Tabqa, Manbij (Minbîj) and Deir ez-Zor (Dêrezor), making a total of seven regions under control of the current administration.
“We remember the martyrs of freedom and pledge to them on this great occasion that they will remain a beacon for us,” the statement concluded, hailing the ongoing struggle in the region.
The Jazira region, formerly the Jazira canton, marked its tenth anniversary with a great march. The region, the largest of the three original regions of DAANES, declared its autonomy on 21 January 2014.
Casting their resistance as an attempt to defend the hard-won gains of the people in the face of external threats, the participants denounced the ongoing Turkish aggression against the Kurdish-led autonomous regions of Syria.
The march, a powerful display of solidarity, served as a platform for the community to voice its collective opposition to the Turkish military operations targeting the area.
