The duties of comrades-in-arms (Kurds)

[TomSea]

The duties of comrades-in-arms
Polat Can • January 11, 2019

As Kurdish people in Syria (Rojava) we have suffered injustices and persecution from the chauvinistic Baathist authority for decades. Our national identity as a people standing on our own has been denied. We have been expelled from our villages and replaced by Arabs. Hundreds of thousands of us have been stripped of Syrian nationality, and we became strangers and foreigners in our own homes and villages. Our Kurdish language was banned and so were our Kurdish songs, culture and clothing. We have been punished, imprisoned and killed for the simplest reasons. Arab identity, language and culture were imposed on us. Anyone who objected was threatened, imprisoned or forced to flee their country into exile.

We did not rid ourselves of the chauvinist and repressive policies of the Baath until we were subjected to repeated attacks by dozens of Islamist factions affiliated with the so-called Free Syrian Army as well as jihadist and terrorist factions, from Ahrar al-Sham to Al-Nusra Front to ISIS and other extremist groups.

These groups were driven by foreign countries and their chauvinism, racism, and religious fanaticism. Sometimes Kurds were accused of being separatists, atheists, apostates, agents of the West, and sometimes enemies of the revolution and allies of the Baath.

Read more at: https://thedefensepost.com/2019/01/11/duties-of-comrades-in-arms-syria/amp/?__twitter_impression=true