The End of Rojava?

In January, brutal attacks by Al-Qaeda and ISIS-linked Damascus forces on Aleppo, particularly targeting the Kurds, sparked deep fears about the fate of Rojava. On the same day as the massacres, EU head Ursula von der Leyen visited Damascus and pledged an immediate grant of 6.2 million euros to the extremism-practicing transitional government of Al-Sharra. A blow to reason, conscience and international law. Encouraged by this EU support and backed militarily by the Turkish army, the extremists advanced to seize cities once liberated from ISIS, including prisons holding thousands of the most dangerous jihadists. The takeover happened, and the extremists were unleashed again. Kobane, the city symbolizing ISIS’s defeat, was soon encircled by Turkish and jihadist forces, its water, food, and electricity cut off. A mass killing loomed, renewing fears for Rojava’s survival.

But the people of Rojava prevailed - again.

People around the world showed their fierce and heartfelt support with demonstrations and diplomatic efforts to cease the flow of Western tax money to the jihadists. Tides are turned currently, but colonialist cards are everlasting flipping and just waiting for the public’s attention to weaken.

Which lessons can we draw from the whole situation? Rojava is a frontier born from struggle and sustained by a deep understanding of how women’s liberation and grassroots organization change life and fate. The key is seen in democratic confederalism. So the question is not merely how a revolutionary project endures, but how it can flourish. The aftermath reveals a landscape scarred by conflict, yet it also glimmers with the possibility of enduring institutions - mutual aid networks, women’s councils, and grassroots assemblies - that have already reshaped local governance. This is an example of how the resilience of a social revolution can transform crisis into momentum.

Trace the threads that bind community to governance. Sustainable survival and economic resilience emerges from cooperative economies, local production, and fair-sharing of resources, even as external pressures threaten access to markets and aid. Cultural vitality - language, education, and communal memory - requires safeguarding spaces where youth can imagine futures beyond conflict, while veterans of resistance mentor new generations in nonviolent, organized change.