On 8 December 2024, the dictatorship in Syria collapsed. For more than fifty years, the Assad family had brutally oppressed the population. Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia. The new strongman in Damascus is now the Islamist militia leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who heads a transitional government of the HTS militia. Al-Sharaa and the militia Hayat Tahrir […]

Let us send new energy to Rojava! Turkish bombardments have largely destroyed the energy supply in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. We therefore want to raise one million euros for solar panels to supply public facilities in the region with sustainable electricity. In this way, we can make a difference and contribute to the further development of a democratic, gender-equitable and ecological alternative in the Middle East.

The self-administration of North and East Syria has stipulated in its social contract that everyone has the right to a clean and healthy environment. To this end, an ecological economy is to be established and land, water and energy made available to the people. However, the region is facing major ecological challenges due to the climate crisis and the ongoing war.

A unique social and political experiment is taking place in North and East Syria: Around five million people are governing themselves. They are developing a democratic alternative to patriarchy, nationalism and jihadism that have plunged the Middle East into its current deep crisis. In thousands of local communities, councils and cooperatives, Arabs, Kurds, Yazidis and Christians, both men and women, are organizing themselves. What does this confederal democracy beyond the nation state look like?

Although the people of North and East Syria have never attacked Turkey, Ankara is waging a relentless war against the self-administration. Artillery shelling leaves the people no peace. Drones kill without warning. Bombs are falling on power stations, schools and hospitals to force people to flee. Numerous regions of northern Syria are occupied and subjected to the tyranny of pro-Turkish Islamists.

The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria has been in existence for 12 years. The revolution began there in the course of the Syrian uprising. An autonomous adminstration was established in the three Kurdish cantons of Afrin, Kobane and Cizire. It now controls around a third of Syria’s territory. It unites different ethnicities, religions and languages under its umbrella. It is therefore a glimmer of hope for democratic reconstruction in Syria.