The General Command of the Women’s Defence Units (YPJ) of North and East Syria (Rojava or NES) has published a statement following the recent overthrow of the Syrian regime by the jihadist militant group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), to raise awareness as to how the ongoing attacks by Turkey and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) have the potential to lead to a revival of the Islamic state (ISIS) in Syria.

In the statement, the YPJ said that the rapid collapse of the Syrian regime in just 12 days was linked to its inability or refusal to resolve the Kurdish issue, commenting that the fall of the regime could have been prevented if the Assad government had “followed a path of democratisation”.

The YPJ also drew attention to the potential dangers that might emerge from the takeover of the government by HTS, saying that the militant group follows a “radical ideology, disregarding the complexities of Syrian society and the potential for widespread violence”. They underlined the seriousness of their concerns by remarking: “The new Syria that emerges from this ideology risks becoming another Afghanistan.”

The Turkish state and its affiliated SNA mercenaries bear the “primary responsibility” for the ongoing war and conflicts in Syria, the YPJ said, explaining that Turkey and “ISIS-linked groups in the guise of the SNA” are repeatedly attacking North and East Syria, and that Turkish Intelligence (MİT) is trying to “stir up strife and incite peoples against each other”, especially minorities like the Kurdish, Arab, Druzes, Armenian and Assyrian-Syriac peoples, who are “at significant risk now”.

The YPJ said that MİT is “plotting to attack al-Hol Camp and the prisons where ISIS detainees are held captive” and that meanwhile, ISIS fighters imprisoned in the Assad regime’s prisons are now being released by HTS, which has also “heightened the threat of ISIS resurgence”.

The statement reaffirmed that the YPJ will resist until the end against attacks by the “ISIS mercenaries, directly affiliated with the Turkish state” and also called upon “the world’s peoples and women to raise their voices and fulfill their responsibility to counter these terrorist attacks, which threaten all of humanity”.

Highlighting the role of North and East Syria (Rojava) as “a beacon of hope for the people of the region and humanity”, the YPJ ended their statement by calling for global resistance and struggle to “halt the attacks of the fascist Turkish Republic and hold it accountable”.