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Canadian John Restakis Visits Rojava Cooperatives and Trains Members

This is a translation of an Arabic language article that originally appeared on ANHA, 19th November, 2016

qam-ji-bo-danesina-sistema-koperatif-serdana-rojava-kir-2-620x364

Executive Director of Community Evolution Foundation (CEF), John Restakis, visited Qamişlo [Qamishlo / Qamishli / Al-Qamishli] in order to learn about the system of the cooperative societies. John is currently working on training the members of the administrations of cooperatives in Rojava.

John Restakis went to Rojava and North Syria in order to learn about the way cooperative societies work, and to train the members of the economic body and the cooperative societies in this field.

qam-ji-bo-danesina-sistema-koperatif-serdana-rojava-kir-4-300x200John has been working in cooperatives for twenty years and he has done a lot of research about cooperative societies in many parts of the world. He is now training the workers in this field in Rojava. John is visiting all the cooperatives in the Cizîrê‎ canton [Cezîre / Jazira Canton] in order to study the system of cooperative societies in Rojava.

On the 20th day of his visit, John organised a training course for twenty administrators and members of the economic body and the cooperatives in the canton about cooperative societies and how they work.

John spoke to Hawar News Agency. Heqam-ji-bo-danesina-sistema-koperatif-serdana-rojava-kir-3-300x200 said, ”The system of cooperative societies in Rojava is very advanced, and I came here because I do research about the cooperatives in the world”.

John said that what grabbed his attention was the connection of these coops to the institutions of the region, and confirmed that this connection is at its highest levels. He continued by saying, ”The people and society accept this system and this is very interesting. The degree of development of the coops here is much higher than the ones abroad. Many members of the cooperatives in Rojava work very actively, but they don’t have a lot of experience, and I will try my best to train them.”

qam-ji-bo-danesina-sistema-koperatif-serdana-rojava-kir-1-300x200John drew attention again to the development of the system of coops in Rojava and said, ”If organisations in the world knew about this development, then many of them would have given a lot of support to Rojava.”

He concluded his talk by saying that the activities in Rojava are revolutionary, and are attempts to develop the system of economy, politics and communal society.

Two small changes were made during the translation process of this article for the sake of accuracy.

1- From ”Member of Community Revolution Foundation CIF” to  ”Executive Director of Community Evolution Foundation (CEF)”

2- From ”Rastekis” to ”Restakis”