“We never even dream of laying down our weapons!”

It’s the year 2024. Christmas is approaching. In Syria, the dictatorial era of the Assad clan has finally come to an end and the “new Syria” is on everyone’s lips. But while everyone in the Global North is rubbing their hands because neoliberal Islamism ala al-Jolani also seems to be compatible with Western interests, and is looking forward to the hard-earned holiday feast and finally a few days without images of bombs on residential areas, refugee camps and hospitals people in Syria are experiencing the harsh reality of World War III after a brief euphoria over the end of Assad.

While in one part of Syria people are stunned and unprepared in the face of various armed Islamist mercenary groups who are unrestrained and mercilessly seeking revenge for the regime’s atrocities, in another part more and more women are taking up arms, joining women’s defense structures and organizing the protection of their districts, or set out to defend Kobanê. While the rest of the world has hardly had to come into direct contact with Islamist fascism, as it was stopped at its peak by the resistance of the YPJ and YPG fighters in Kobanê, the women in the north-eastern part of Syria know very well which enemy they are (now again) facing: radical Islamist mercenary groups, known for war crimes and sexual violence – washed in Perwoll, beard trimmed, trained in both military and political rhetoric, but still Islamic-fundamentalist, fascist and deeply misogynistic in their goals and methods.

This became clear once again in an interview by Obaida Arnaout (spokesperson for the HTS-led transitional government) on AlJadeed (Lebanese TV station). When asked how women would participate in the new government, he said that many things were not in keeping with the nature of women. Accordingly, women have no place in politics, the judiciary and defense. In particular, using a weapon would not be in accordance with a woman’s nature.

As HTS now wants to incorporate its ideology into official government policy, and the leaders of HTS and SNA mercenaries are taking up new ministerial posts in Damascus, they continue to attack the DAANES areas, supported by Turkish air strikes. And while al-Jolani shakes hands with the first guests from Turkey, the US and France, it is the SNA militias that are kidnapping, imprisoning and torturing women in the occupied areas of Afrin and Shehba because they are ‘working with DAANES’. And as a whole series of SNA and HTS mercenaries walk around with IS patches on their uniforms, the resurgent IS is also attacking the multi-ethnic areas of DAANES. It must be made clear that this is NOT about Turkey’s security concerns, but about the eradication of the idea and practice of a democratic, multi-ethnic and multi-religious Syria led by women. On the one hand, this is physically evident with the targeted murder of three Zenobiya activists in Minbic (Zenobiya is the umbrella organization of Arab women), the war reporters Cihan and Nazim, who wanted to make this very power of resistance visible alongside the reality of war, and the co-spokesperson of the youth council of the Syrian Future Party in Deir-a Zor, Muhammed Hesen El Samir. In parallel, this attempt to eradicate the DAANES is being carried out through an unparalleled information war. Images of arbitrary executions, mistreatment and murder of prisoners of war, the abduction, mistreatment and insults of female prisoners of war, the brutality and repulsiveness of murderous, plundering, Islamist gangs are intended to spread fear and terror, and break the morale of the resisting fighters.

Completely unaffected by all this, the German Foreign Minister is now standing by her Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan and, in view of the escalating attacks by the Turkish-controlled SNA mercenaries, is calling for people to lay down their weapons. However, she is not demanding this from the SNA mercenaries, who are known for their war crimes and human rights violations. Nor is she demanding this from the Turkish army when it attacks the population of the DAANES on Syrian territory in violation of international law. No, she is calling on Kurdish women and their allies living with them on the same land – Arab, Armenian, Assyrian and Chaldean women!

It was less than two years ago that Annalena Baerbock was still holding up signs reading ‘Jin, Jiyan, Azadi’. Now we can only speculate what prompted her to stop standing by the side of Kurdish women and instead to stand by Erdogan and Fidan.

I would like to invite our Foreign Minister to come to Syria and experience our situation for herself. Ms Baerbock, would you feel safe here without armed protection? You are always welcome here, and you can be sure that just as we protect every woman in DAANES, we will also protect you here.

As an internationalist in DAANES who has decided to fight alongside Kurds, Arabs, Armenians, Assyrians and Chaldeans against Islamic fascism and not just spout big words, I can say “We will never lay down our weapons!” Because we love our lives and we love the free life that we are building here step by step. We will not allow ourselves to be overrun, raped, murdered and desecrated by Islamist mercenaries. We have armed ourselves because it is necessary. We defend ourselves with weapons in hand because we no longer accept the role of victims of war! If war is forced upon us, then at least we will defend ourselves! We are in this situation because hegemonic powers like Germany are waging World War III here on the backs of the societies of the Middle East! We will never lay down our weapons because we need them for our legitimate self-defense. What we do NOT need, Ms Baerbock, is your patriarchal foreign policy in female garb! I simply ask you to be quiet and leave us alone. This of course also means that we should stop selling weapons to Turkey, which either uses these weapons against us itself or distributes them to its Islamist mercenary gangs. Furthermore, it also means that we should stop throwing billions at the Turkish state as part of the EU-Turkey refugee deal, which are used for ethnic cleansing of the Kurdish areas in the form of forced migration and the resettlement of mercenary families.

Dear Ms Baerbock – whether you come or not, we will continue to defend our revolution, which is a women’s revolution, with weapons in hand, until WE no longer consider it necessary. The nature of women is not subordination, but struggle and resistance. If YOU want to contribute to this, then immediately stop the arms sales to Turkey and other Islamist groups, and campaign for the recognition of the DAANES!