Roja­va — A mov­ing let­ter from a fight­er to her friend, com­man­der Ceren Güneş. 

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The Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Com­mu­nard Par­ty Cen­tral Com­mit­tee mem­ber Ceren Güneş (Özge Aydın) became immor­tal­ized while resist­ing with inter­na­tion­al­ist fight­ers and rev­o­lu­tion­ar­ies from Turkey and Kur­dis­tan at the Ser­akaniye-Til Temir front on Novem­ber 3, 2019. Born to a Turk­ish fam­i­ly in Muğla and fin­ished Hacette­pe Med­ical Fac­ul­ty, com­man­der Ceren Güneş had been fight­ing at the Roja­va for four years.

Decem­ber 2019. Til Temir. Rojava

Dear com­rade Ceren Güneş,

How to start this let­ter? How I can express in words all the love and rage I have inside of me? Still deep in the resis­tance of the defense in Roja­va, still deep in the thoughts and wish­es of free­dom from so many com­rades, the same as you also had. Born in Turkey, you soon start­ed to be a mil­i­tant of a rev­o­lu­tion­ary orga­ni­za­tions, car­ry­ing inside of you the most beau­ti­ful per­spec­tive as women rev­o­lu­tion­ary fight­er and love for your women com­rades. Your con­vic­tion drove to you until the lands of Kur­dis­tan, where you took part in the arm strug­gle in the defense of every land under threat of
oppression.

This is not a “good­bye let­ter”. Every­thing I learned next to you helps me to remem­ber you and to remem­ber why we meet, why our ways had to find each oth­er. The two of us arrived to Roja­va, in a very dif­fer­ent times, but shar­ing the deci­sion to strug­gle, to build and to defend a new future. To build strong con­nec­tions between com­rades, to con­front fas­cism, to sup­port every women and young girl that grows up oppressed, to strug­gle for the free­dom of every sis­ter and com­rade locked up in jails, choos­ing to walk next to the oppressed peo­ple and a col­lec­tive life. But yes… I miss you.

From the begin­ning I could see your strength and your light. Fight­er and deter­mined, full of val­ue and com­pro­mise, ful­fill­ing the sense of the mean­ing of giv­ing your life for the strug­gle against fas­cism and cap­i­tal­ism. I had the good luck to share next to you intense moments in our dai­ly life, the con­ver­sa­tions in the moon­light with warm tea and rev­o­lu­tion­ary songs, moments of resis­tance. Here, in the vil­lages and cities the inva­sion of the turk­ish fas­cist troops and the jihadist gangs con­tin­ues, and in the same way that you were par­tic­i­pat­ing in the defense of this land, your com­rades con­tin­ue going for­ward, because we know that this is also what you will like to do. We know that our strug­gle makes the
com­rades fall­en in bat­tle live on, and reminds us the rea­sons why we stand for rev­o­lu­tion­ary ideas, mak­ing even greater the val­ues that togeth­er we were building.

I will have always in my mind your ini­tia­tive to build sol­i­dar­i­ty between com­rades, to know the strug­gle from the dif­fer­ent fem­i­nist move­ments in every cor­ner of this world, to make vis­i­ble every revolt, for make of the Inter­na­tion­al­ism the most alive pic­ture in defense of the auton­o­my of the wom­ens orga­ni­za­tions. I saw in you all the val­ue you gave to the com­rades with whom you learned to fight and live a life in com­mu­ni­ty. For me, you are a big inspi­ra­tion of courage and brav­ery. I hope to be able to con­tin­ue in your foot­prints on the path of your walk, because your effort it is already part of
our his­to­ry. That his­to­ry that we build our­selves, con­vinced that fight­ing for life is the only way. With the clear deci­sion that we our­selves have to rise up strong in this war.

Com­rade Ceren, every time I remem­ber you I need to smile, because I know, that your rev­o­lu­tion­ary heart writes the his­to­ry of all the women that are fight fol­low­ing your steps. Your deci­sion and com­mit­ment will inspire across the world to rise up and to join the strug­gle against oppres­sion, they will keep the mem­o­ry of all women who decid­ed like you, to give your lives to build a resis­tance against the fas­cism of Erdo­gan, the silence of Europe and the com­plic­i­ty of Rus­sia and the USA.

I write to you from the vil­lages in the line of defense of Til Temir. The same towns that saw you fight, the same ones that are being bru­tal­ly attacked by Turk­ish sol­diers and jihadist groups. They can use all the war weapons they want, but they can­not end the resis­tance of the Roja­va peo­ple, they can­not end the mem­o­ry of all these years of rev­o­lu­tion and dreams that became true. The roots of this land are already part of the exam­ple of the dig­ni­ty that moth­ers, daugh­ters, grand­moth­ers, fight­ers, cooks, doc­tors, nurs­es… are building.

Writ­ing to you I remem­ber the inter­na­tion­al­ist com­rades who came and fought with the strongest con­vic­tion, from the deep­est love, in defense of this ter­ri­to­ry and the ideas that live in it. They chose to spread the rev­o­lu­tion­ary ideas to the world, becom­ing a great inspi­ra­tion, for all those who like me decid­ed to come, to learn,to see with our own eyes and par­tic­i­pate with our own hands in the immense work that the women com­rades have been devel­op­ing in Kur­dis­tan. Sehid Aynur Ada, sehid Ivan­na Hof­man, sehid Anna Camp­bell, Sehid Leg­erin Çiya, sehid Sara Dorşin, sehid Andrea Wolf, sehid Ceren Güneş. I remem­ber you and I reaf­firm the belief that women are the engine of the defense of this wild
life.

More days of resis­tance are yet to come, and we will take care of each oth­er, we will fight togeth­er for those that have fall­en and for those that are to come. To all the inter­na­tion­al­ist com­rades that find your­selves fight­ing and defend­ing the ter­ri­to­ry of Roja­va, to all the com­rades that although far apart share the same steps and deci­sions, for all of you I con­tin­ue to con­vince myself every day that ours is the strug­gle for life, and that although our ene­my is pow­er­ful, we have the most pre­cious and strong weapons, uni­ty and col­lec­tive support.

For the earth and the com­rades that have fall­en mar­tyrs in this his­toric war against Pow­er. Com­rade Sehid Ceren Güneş, your words of free­dom are more alive and present to me than ever. I will take you with me in my thoughts and with­in my heart, mak­ing our days the best trib­ute, to con­tin­ue and not give up. If I stop for a moment, I can still hear you singing rev­o­lu­tion­ary songs in Turk­ish lan­guage, in the kitchen prepar­ing tea for the com­rades, and mak­ing us all sit togeth­er and share long moments of con­ver­sa­tion. If I stop for a moment, I can remem­ber those nights next to oth­er com­rades where we dis­cussed how to con­tin­ue fight­ing togeth­er when the time came when our paths would separate.

And I keep smil­ing, because our path remains the same and your mem­o­ry teach­es me the val­ue of all the moments we share togeth­er. Until the last cor­ner of this world, until we are all free, we will not stop! Our steps and our revolutionary
ideas make us stay togeth­er any­way, anywhere.

One of the inter­na­tion­al­ist women com­rades that you also know one day told me, that the work for the lib­er­a­tion of the women that is done here is so strong, that even with dif­fi­cul­ties we go for­ward all togeth­er, that this love makes us become “for­ev­er “. I have no bet­ter way to describe you… Com­rade Ceren, we are forever!

The land where you rest fills with mean­ing the inde­fati­ga­ble resis­tance of the fight­ers, the land of Roja­va will remem­ber you in each new com­rade that will join the rev­o­lu­tion. And in my heart I take you with me dear sis­ter, because those who fight nev­er die and that fact nei­ther fas­cist armies nor the most extreme cap­i­tal­ism is capa­ble of chang­ing. Has­ta  siem­pre, and you always with us!

Sehid Namirin. To resist is to live, in any cor­ner of this world…
From one of your Inter­na­tion­al­ist women com­rades. Always near

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