QAMISHLI, Northern Syrian Federation — A British delegation of Labour politicians and trade unionists met with officials of the Kurdish-led authority in Rojava, northern Syria, on Tuesday night to pledge their solidarity with its democratic project in the face of Turkish threats.
“We are here because we are very inspired by what we hear about Rojava and we want to see it with our own eyes,” Lord Maurice Glasman told reporters.
Glasman, an academic and a peer in the British House of Lords, said the ideology of democratic confederalism, set out by jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) founder Abdullah Ocalan, is related to the social democratic movement in Britain.
“We also bring, with a full heart, our solidarity with you. We are here with humility and a real love of this democratic confederalism which we see is related to our tradition," he said. "So we are here for a long-term relationship with you where we can support you against all the people who are trying to destroy your liberty and your democracy.
“We want to say that we believe that love will beat hate, that democracy will beat fascism, and that you will prevail.”
Glasman was accompanied by Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who sits on a number of influential committees in the British parliament. He told reporters the delegation hopes to vouch for the Rojava project and stop British arms exports to Turkey.
Today I visited #kobani seeing support for displaced people (refugeees from #afrin), war graves of local & international fighters for democracy & socialism & met with local officials which all are gender balanced but worried about totatalairanism & aggression from Turkey pic.twitter.com/TKxNUjuWxK
— Lloyd Russell-Moyle (@lloyd_rm) April 4, 2018
“We want to hear the messages from the people and the experiences that they’ve gone through, the struggle, and then the society that you are building. And we want to share that, then back in England with our parliament, and with our people to shine the light of social democracy, and shine the light of what you are doing here to the wider world,” said Russell-Moyle.
Russell-Moyle sits on the international development and arms export committees.
“So my role will be to make sure those committees are first of all preventing and scrutinizing weapon exports to Turkey and stopping that as much as possible. And secondly raising the issues of how you are developing and showing the great example that you have shown us.
Labour is the second largest party in parliament.
“We are here for you. What you are doing is a beacon of light for the rest of the world and we want to support that and we want to say that we are with you, side by side," added Russell-Moyle.
Whilst I’m visiting Kurdish Syria and Rojava a mural has been unveiled in my constituency to remember #annacampbell_ypj and the #Rojavarevolution for democracy and equality. pic.twitter.com/8vGZuZny1B
— Lloyd Russell-Moyle (@lloyd_rm) April 4, 2018
The delegation from Britain entered Rojava through Semalka border crossing, which connects the Kurdistan Region and Rojava.
They were received by Abdulkarim Omar, the co-chair of foreign affairs of Jazira canton, and his deputy Sana Dham, the Democratic Union Party (PYD)-linked news agency reported, adding that the delegation is also travelling to Qamishli to meet with local officials.
Russell-Moyle has previously shown his support for Kurds in Syria and Turkey.
He wrote in Newsweek magazine that the UK should not sell weapons to Turkey because they could end up being used against the Kurdish armed force, the Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG) – “Britain’s ally.”
He likened arming Turkey with arming Saudi Arabia in his February 2 article, almost two weeks after Turkey launched its operation against Afrin.
“Both are internally repressive, both institutionally use torture and both have on occasion exercised violent collective punishment against minorities. They also both support al-Qaeda in Syria, a designated terrorist organization, so both present clear diversion risks,” he wrote.
He also accused Turkey of oppressing minorities living in the country, referring to Kurds and the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP).
Turkey considers the PYD and YPG branches of the PKK, a named terror organization, and has threatened to extend its military campaign in northern Syria across Rojava after taking control of Afrin canton last month.
Kurdish officials from Rojava were hosted by France’s Emmanuel Macron in Paris last week, drawing Ankara’s ire.
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