It is our duty to defend the Rojava Revolution! The Rojava Revolution is once again the common target of the remnants of Al-Nusra, ISIS, and other Salafi jihadist fascist gangs, as well as the Turkish colonialist arm, the FSA (Free Syrian Army) gangs. The colonial Turkish state is waiting for an opportunity to invade, occupy and annex Rojava. The Rojava Revolution, which is the work of the freedom and coexistence of the peoples of the Middle East, is under great risk and threat.
Militarism between imperialist blocs is rapidly escalating. All the conditions leading to the Third Imperialist Partition War are developing. The contradictions between the world rulers, who are currently aligned into two imperialist blocs, are becoming sharper. The war for hegemony and redistribution between imperialist blocs is moving to a new level. This militaristic escalation is concretizing as wars in two regions. These two war battlefields/regions stand before us like gates leading to the Third Imperialist War over redistribution and therefore a new hell on earth. The first is the war between Ukraine and Russia. However, this war is, in fact, a strategic attrition war initiated by the USA, NATO, and the Western imperialist bloc against the Russia-China bloc; it is a war to detach Russia from China and absorb it.
This geopolitics, aimed to eliminate Russia in the strategy to encircle China, is shaped as an attack on all areas of Russia’s hegemony. The Ukraine/NATO-Russia war is nothing more than the most advanced stage of this geopolitics today. The encirclement of Russia from the West, its expulsion from the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, the liquidation of its influence in Africa, and the complete neutralization of its power in South America are the primary war strategies of the world hegemon, the USA, and the Atlantic Pact. The competition, hegemony, and local wars between Russia and the Western imperialist bloc in all these areas is an undisputed reality. The imperialist conflict and local wars that began with the disintegration of Eastern Europe and Yugoslavia continue today with new dimensions.
The Middle East stands as the second gate to the Third Imperialist War of distribution. In the conflict and war between imperialist blocs, Russia is fighting on a second front outside of Ukraine. Russia is also at war in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. Syria is the place where Russia continues its southern front war against the imperialist and Zionist bloc. Russia, allied with Iran and Syria, forms the axis of anti-Zionist resistance in the Middle East, making it the primary military target of the imperialist Atlantic Pact on a global scale. Iran, on the other hand, is the fundamental target of the Zionist and imperialist bloc at the regional level. Syria, where the Russia-Iran alliance is concretized, is one of the prominent areas of imperialist redistribution in this context.
The “resistance axis,” which came into existence in the Middle East as a force against the Zionist and imperialist bloc, is on the front lines of the hegemony and distribution wars between the two imperialist blocs. For this reason, the Zionist-imperialist bloc is constantly deepening and expanding the regional war in the Middle East. With its genocidal occupation, it is attempting to break the will of the Palestinian nation. It aims to destroy Hezbollah’s resistance strength by devastating Lebanon with the Zionist war machine. It seeks to detach the Syrian regime from Iran and its alliance with imperialist Russia, bringing it into the Zionist-imperialist bloc’s ranks. The Zionist-imperialist bloc is following a strategy of advancing from front to front, country to country, to break up the resistance axis. The Zionist-imperialist war, which has been transferred to Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria, will, at a later stage, take over Yemen and Iran. The Middle East order established by British imperialism a century ago with the Sykes-Picot agreement is being reshaped today by the hegemon of the imperialist world, the USA, Britain and their allies.
The USA, Britain and Zionist Israel have attempted to change the geopolitical structure of the Middle East through wars and occupations. The imperialist-Zionist bloc is trying to fortify the region in line with its own imperial interests. The imperialist hegemony of the world is redesigning the Middle East against the interests of the regional peoples. For this purpose, they use all kinds of conventional and asymmetric warfare concepts. The new war concept put into use by the Zionist-imperialist bloc in Syria fully embodies the practice of reorganising the region in line with its own imperial interests.
The new war concept deployed by the Zionist-imperialist bloc in Syria with HTS (Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham) aims primarily at gaining positions against Russia and Iran on the front. The new war reality that emerged in Aleppo are the result of the power relations between imperialist blocs and the given total war situation. Through the Aleppo-Hama battle with HTS, the USA, Israel, the UK, and HTS have raised the war with Russia, Syria, and Iran to a new level. This also marks one of the steps towards an imperialist punishment or occupation war against Iran.
HTS’s advance from Idlib, under the guarantee of the colonial Turkish bourgeois state, toward Aleppo, where it captured Aleppo in three days, clearly occurred as a result of the maturation of certain political and objective conditions. The Zionist-imperialist war bloc weakened the resistance axis with the Lebanese war. Hezbollah suffered heavy losses and made a ceasefire agreement with Israel. Iran’s weakness became apparent.
Because it lacked the military capacity to challenge or respond to Israel on the same level, it withdrew into defense. Due to the escalation of the Ukraine war, Russia pulled a part of its experienced military personnel from Syria. The colonial Turkish bourgeois state, under pressure from the Zionist-imperialist bloc, aligned itself with Russia and Iran in Syrian politics. It collapsed the Astana process and, prepared the conditions for the mobilisation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, showing that it is openly under the command of NATO and on the imperialist-Zionist front.
In the extraordinarily weakened conditions of the Damascus regime, which relies on the strength of Iran and Russia and depends on Hezbollah and Hashd al-Shaabi for support, HTS and the FSA (Free Syrian Army) moved into action. The timing of the Zionist-imperialist war in Lebanon can be said to coincide with the moment of transition and “vacuum” created by the US elections. The election of Donald Trump as president and the political transfer of power facilitated HTS’s war in Aleppo. On the day the temporary ceasefire with Lebanon took effect, HTS and the FSA attacked Aleppo and reached their goal within three days. HTS’s assault on Aleppo, with the aim of taking the city, adds a new figure to the regional war landscape. There is no doubt that such a move by HTS was expected.
HTS, which existed in Idlib under the guarantee of the colonial Turkish bourgeois state with a large military force, and under the secret patronage of the imperialist bloc, was preparing for a new war. The imperialists and the Turkish bourgeois state were providing HTS with all the resources for this. It is clear that behind this war concept stands the Zionist-imperialist bloc, led by Israel, NATO, and the imperialist bloc. This new military move, realized with the direct support of the UK, Turkey, Israel, and the USA, aims to push Russia, Assad, and Iran into submission. Meanwhile, simultaneously with HTS, the colonial Turkish bourgeois state organized, trained, equipped, and paid the FSA to attack and occupy the Shehba region, under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The FSA is preparing to attack Manbij. The FSA, as the mercenary military arm of Turkish colonialism, has one primary objective: the liquidation of the Rojava Revolution.
Once again, the Rojava Revolution is the common target of the remnants of Al-Nusra and ISIS, along with the Salafi jihadist fascist gangs and the FSA gangs, which are the arm of Turkish colonialism. The colonial Turkish state is ready and waiting to invade and annex Rojava. The Rojava Revolution, which is the result of the freedom and coexistence of the peoples of the Middle East, is under great risk and threat. The Rojava Revolution, besieged by the double attack of the imperialist-Zionist bloc, colonial states, and jihadist fascist gangs, represents the most advanced revolutionary alternative and achievements of the regional peoples. Today, all the political, military, and other institutions that sustain the Rojava Revolution, with the Kurdish, Arab, Assyrian, Armenian, and Circassian peoples of Rojava, are taking a defensive stance to protect the revolution. Our peoples, who created the Rojava Revolution, are once again determining their fate through their own actions. They are rushing to the trenches of war and resistance to defend the revolution with the spirit of the Kobanê resistance.
The workers’ movement must, without hesitation, take a position in defense of the Rojava Revolution. Just as we stood in solidarity with Kobanê, we must raise the struggle for solidarity and unity in action with the Rojava Revolution. Let us strengthen the fight against imperialism, colonialism, and jihadist fascist gangs through all forms of political agitation and action. All revolutionaries, democrats and socialists are on duty to defend the Rojava Revolution and to develop the united struggle of the peoples of the Middle East!
The editorial published on December 6, in issue 196 of the Workers and Oppressed Voice ATILIM newspaper.