ANKARA — Writer and documentary filmmaker Metin Yeğin said the social contract established in Rojava cannot be undermined, arguing that the region’s “utopia of life” will reshape even the thinking of those who believe they have defeated it. “Its influence is spreading everywhere,” he said.

 

Clashes that lasted 23 days erupted after attacks by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Islamic State (ISIS), and Turkish-backed groups on the Kurdish neighborhoods of Şêxmeqsûd (Sheikh Maqsoud) and Eşrefiye (Ashrafieh) in Aleppo. The fighting was largely met with global silence. The Rojava administration, which declared mobilization for self-defense, said it repelled the attacks through resistance and later reached an agreement with the Damascus interim administration on Jan. 30.

 

Yeğin, who has participated in communal movements worldwide and produced documentaries on the subject, evaluated the Rojava model and the assaults targeting it.

 

‘REACTIONS WERE LIMITED TO HUMANITARIAN GROUNDS’

 

Yeğin stated that the communal structure established in Rojava has not been sufficiently communicated to the outside world, resulting in reactions driven primarily by humanitarian concerns rather than political solidarity.

 

Yeğin said: “Highlighting the communal structure could have triggered a different form of people’s diplomacy. If that had been done adequately, the world would have understood more clearly what was at risk. Rojava’s real influence has been conveyed far less than it actually is.”

 

‘A DIFFERENT MORAL FRAMEWORK EXISTS IN ROJAVA’

 

At a time when the world is drifting toward fascism, Yeğin said the alternative way of life defended in Rojava should be emphasized more strongly. “Against the catastrophic morality of the bourgeois order and the decay we watch with horror each day, there is another kind of ethics and morality in Rojava,” he said, describing it as a break not only from what is often labeled a “backward” Middle East but also from a broader moral collapse stretching from the United States to the Netherlands.

 

‘AN ETHICAL AND POLITICAL BREAK’

 

Yeğin stated that dominant capitalist modernity has made the world increasingly dangerous and that violence against women has reached alarming levels. He added that the global spread of the slogan “Jin, jiyan, azadî” (Women, life, freedom) was no coincidence. He said: “This is not a reform but an ethical and political rupture. That is why Rojava has become the world’s ground zero.”

 

‘IT WILL CHANGE THE THINKING OF THOSE WHO BELIEVE THEY WON’

 

Yeğin rejected the idea that the agreement between the Rojava administration and Syria’s interim government represented a defeat. “You may be defeated on the battlefield, but those who defeat you often have to adopt your ideas,” he said, comparing the potential impact to that of the Spanish Revolution. While he does not expect ISIS or HTS to embrace these ideas, he argued that societies in the region and beyond might.

 

“The utopia of life in Rojava will transform even the mass base of those who think they have prevailed,” he added, saying the effect could extend from Lebanon to Afghanistan and Turkey.

 

‘DEFENDING A DIFFERENT WORLD IS NOT A CRIME’

 

Yeğin maintained that international pressure on Rojava targets its Social Contract. Yeğin said: “Why are we discussing Rojava today? Because its influence is spreading everywhere. In a dystopian world where people struggle to survive and the dark crimes of leaders elected through ‘democratic’ means come to light, it is strange that advocating a different world is considered a crime.”

 

Yeğin argued that meaningful transformation in favor of societies will remain difficult unless the Social Contract is put into practice. He said: “If we are workers or laborers, we should look at the conditions created by the social contract in Rojava and decide where we can stand in solidarity. Even if you can do nothing else, do not think like the state. The state is not only tanks and rifles but a vast ideology built on consent.”

 

‘ANOTHER WAY OF LIFE WILL EMERGE’

 

Yeğin concluded that building collective and communal structures could help spread Rojava’s ideas globally. “When the Berlin Wall fell, it was said that walls would never be built again, yet that ‘wall virus’ spread across the world. In Rojava, the opposite will happen. Its ideas will gradually spread, and the seeds of another way of life will emerge,” he said. 

 

MA / Sema Bingöl