JIN JIYAN AZADI! Justice for the Kurdish martyrs of the Paris massacre!

The International Women’s Alliance stands in militant solidarity with the Kurdish people and their struggle for freedom as they mourn the six victims of an armed attack on December 23rd. Three Kurdish activists who were killed and three others injured in the armed attack at the Ahmet Kaya Cultural Centre, a Kurdish restaurant and a Kurdish-run barbershop on Rue d'Enghien in the tenth arrondissement of Paris. The victims of the targeted attack are Evîn Goyî (Emine Kara), a member of the KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council, YPJ (Women’s Defense Units) veteran in the fight against ISIS and leading representative of the Kurdish women's movement, musician Mîr Perwer (M. Şirin Aydın) and long-time activist Abdurrahman Kızıl.

The Democratic Kurdish Council in France (CDK-F) made a press statement in front of the Ahmet Kaya Kurdish Cultural Centre on Monday and called for participation in the farewell ceremony, march and rally to be held in the French capital on January 3rd and 7th. On January 3rd, the Kurdish community in France will send off the bodies of three martyrs to Kurdistan after a ceremony to be held in Paris's suburb of Villers-le-Belle.

These attacks come as thousands of Kurdish people continue to be subjected to violence from fascist governments and extremists alike all over the world. Just two months ago, women’s liberation activist Nagihan Akarsel was assassinated right outside her home in the South Kurdish town of Slêmanî. In Iran, Kurdish women are arrested and killed for fighting for their peoples’ freedom. The Turkish army has also been unleashing drones and chemical weapons to massacre Kurdish peoples. Elsewhere, they are subject to harassment, discrimination, and other rights violations. This attack also comes shortly before the 10th year anniversary of the triple assassination of Sakine Cansiz, Leyla Saylemez and Fidan Dogan in Paris by Turkish intelligence operatives. IWA honored the lives of these leaders of the Kurdish Movement, and we honor those whose lives have been lost since.

IWA condemns US imperialism and its support of the Turkish government in their violent suppression of the Kurdish people and their constant attempts to crush the movement for national self-determination of the Kurdish people. We condemn the attempts to wipe out the national and cultural identity of the Kurdish people, and the curtailment of their social, political, and economic rights. The fight for self-determination should be upheld and supported by all IWA members as an important contribution to women’s full emancipation in society.

The women struggling for genuine liberation often walk with targets on their backs because of their exposure of the fascist schemes of state forces, and the threat they pose to the power of their exploiters. Women around the world are organizing together in various ways to oppose the rise of fascism in all its forms. The International Women’s Alliance raises to the highest honor the women who oppose fascism through active participation in militant struggles and in waging campaigns that expose the rottenness of fascism and violence of imperialism - while also fighting bravely for a world free of exploitation, oppression and self-determination.

IWA calls on all our members and friends to decry US imperialism and all the fascist regimes it supports which oppress women and all peoples of the world. Carry on the fight for social justice and liberation! Down with tyrannical regimes! Down with imperialism! Long live international solidarity! We raise high the names of those lost to fascist violence on December 23rd, and with all Kurdish people struggling for self-determination we say “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi!” “Women, Life, Freedom!”