Rojava Calling

Announced by the University of Pittsburgh

The Rojava Solidarity Group, Pittsburgh, will host:

"Rojava Calling: First-Hand Perspectives on the October Invasion of Northeastern Syria"

Sunday, January 26th: 11-1pm.

Posvar Hall 4130, University of Pittsburgh

Speakers with first-hand experience in northeastern Syria will comment upon the situation in the autonomous region of Rojava since the 2019 "Operation Peace Spring" invasion by Turkish Armed Forces and affiliates. Syrian speakers will call in, and an American volunteer will attend in-person. The conversation will include an overview of the situation, individual comments from the panelists, and extensive time for Q&A. Interpretation between English, Kurdish (Kurmanji), and Arabic will be available.

Commonly referred to by its Kurdish name, Rojava, Kurdish-majority northeastern Syria has been a self-governed region since 2014. More formally known as the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES), Rojava is an experiment in democratic confederalism, a form of self-government based upon a critique of state power. It aspires to decentralized, feminist, polyethnic, and ecological governance from below.

Viciously attacked by ISIS in 2014, Rojava and its self-protection units cooperated with the US and other Western powers to defeat the caliphate. But peace has been elusive, and Rojava has been invaded multiple times by the government of Turkey, Rojava’s neighbor to the north.

The most recent invasion of Rojava led by the Turkish Armed Forces followed the sudden withdrawal of US troops in October 2019. Under the pretext of fighting Kurdish terrorism, “Operation Peace Spring” began the ongoing occupation of several cities in Rojava, displacing 300,000 people from their homes.

Rojava Calling will allow people with first-hand knowledge of the situation to tell their stories.