Derik (Arabic: المالكية Al Mālikiyah, Classical Syriac: ܕܪܝܟ, Dayrik, Kurdish: Dêrika Hemko) is a small, relatively green, peaceful and diverse city, comprising of Kurds, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Arabs and Armenians. It contains a number of churches.
Derik is the Qamişlo Canton, in the Jazira Region of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria.
According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Al-Malikiyah had a population of about 40,000 in the 2012 census.
A lot happened since our last picture gallery published only one month ago. During those weeks, we notably went to a village called Rêhanik to help Kurdish friends there to build a new communal park where families from the village can gather to spend time together. But we mostly focused on the plantation of vegetables
The Rojava revolution is under attack. Debbie Bookchin and Emre Şahin share their thoughts on this unique revolutionary process after recently visiting the region.
North and East Syria faces serious challenges in the fight against COVID-19. 600,000 IDPs and refugees live in camps across the region, their situation already precarious without a pandemic. Ongoing attacks by Turkish forces, Turkey-backed militias, and ISIS complicate the security situation and threaten essential civilian infrastructure like water lines. According to the Rojava Information Center,
The Kurdish umbrella organisation Kongreya Star supports various cooperatives in Rojava in which women work autonomously and thus stand up for themselves and the community at the same time. There are now 16 new cooperatives in Cizîrê despite the war.
Hevrîn Khalaf has played an unforgettable role in the women’s revolution of Rojava and for the unity of peoples. She was executed in an ambush by a jihadist gang allied with Turkey. Havrin Khalaf, or Hevrîn Xelef, was born in 1984 in Dêrik city of northern Syria. She grew up as a child in a
“In the liberated areas, every harvest is a revolutionary act. Our enemies aim to destroy the revolution by starving us – through embargo, arson, and violence. The collectivised lands we harvested this week lie in the shadow of a militarised imperialist border that divides the Kurdish people from each other, and in sight of fields
After the first snow since four years in February, spring has come to Rojava and we are happy that we could start again our ecological work at the internationalist commune. In the last months we were not able to do practical work because of the war, so there‘s a lot to do. In the last
As April is one of the last months before the summer, we were focusing on the work at the site of our academy. We were continuing to work on our park of the internationalist martyrs and planted trees in another segment of the academy site. In that area we were mixing olive, pomegrenate, grapefruit, almond, plum and mulberry trees. In other different places we continued with planting vegetables and small bushes.
Over the last two weeks we finally planted the first badge of olive trees on the area of our academy. The trees are still small, but already change the appearance of the place a lot. We got the trees from a nearby tree nursery. When the war in Afrin was getting more intense many olive trees were cutted as saplings and brought to the other parts of Rojava, also to that tree nursery. In that way we see on the one side of Rojava the Turkish is brutally acting against people and nature – olive orchards have been burnt down – on the other side we try to contribute to the reforestation of the region.
Sarhad Farm is the second biggest livestock-breeding project in Derik. The project is expected to be launched within one month, and it will be owned by a co-operative society with 400 members.
The House of Co-operatives in Derik has started cultivating the 1,550 dunams (decares) of agricultural land that belongs to Axa Welat Co-operative in the village of Haji Matri, one of the villages around Derik in the Qamishlo canton.
Pêşketin Co-operative Society is one of the co-operatives that has taken an important position in the region of Derik. It is divided into two parts, livestock and agriculture. The co-operative has accomplished partial self-sufficiency since its inception, and it has a participatory nature.
The year 2016 was characterised by the advance of economic projects that aimed to improve the communal economy in Rojava, especially the projects that were connected to women.
In Rojava, the significance of the co-operative system lies in efforts to democratise all sectors of society, including the economy. For this reason, creating alternative means and avenues that allow traditionally marginalised groups such as women to actively participate and engage with the market is an essential aspect of the radical democratic model.
The co-operative started with the participation of 50 women who work the land, cultivating, planting and overseeing the growth of the crops.
Adar Bakery is the first bakery to be founded and run by women in Rojava. With the support of the TEV-DEM Women’s Economic Committee, six women were organised in a cooperative and began production in April 2016, communally making the bread and sharing the revenue.
