Author: admunisty

The following interview was conducted with Dr. Amaad Yousef, the Minister of Economy for the Efrîn Canton in Rojava by Sedat Yılmaz and appeared in Özgür Gündem. Yılmaz spoke with Dr. Yousef as he took part in a conference organized by the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) in the city of Van last month. The subject of the conference was the ‘Democratic Economy.’ The interview has been translated into English below.

The canton’s economy is heavily agricultural based and dependent on plant and animal production. As a result of hostilities and the displacement of people, no crops were planted or produced, with the livestock dispelled, relocated, confiscated by ISIS or killed during the conflicts.

This report was produced in coordination with the Reveberiya Xweseriya Demokratik Kantona Kobane- Suriya, in October 2015 and outlines the status of the agricultural industry in the canton and the surrounding villages.

In Western Kurdistan, agriculture and livestock are being revived. While the area of cultivated land gets bigger, livestock is developing and dairy facilities are being built up. Products banned under the Ba’ath regime have already been seen in the market. Economic power is strengthening day by day despite the embargo and oppressions on Rojava, where cooperative organizations have become prominent.

The fundamental difference with the Western judicial systems is that on average only a third of the social disputes reach a court. All the others are solved by the communes -area assemblies- through agreements between the parties and light punishments.

Hassan said that their primary goal is the development of cooperatives and they went ahead with some pilot projects in this area, where they sought to encourage people to set up cooperative societies through communes.

Qamişlo – Participation increases to 1,500 members in a livestock cooperative formed by the Qamishlo People’s Assembly. The Qamishlo People’s assembly formed the livestock cooperative in October 2016, and membership registration has been open ever since. The Council has allocated a large farm for breeding cattle in Naqara village, about 12km from the city of Qamishlo,