When I first visited Raqqa in 2022 with friends from the Internationalist Commune in Rojava, the consequences of the fight against the Islamic State were still evident everywhere: collapsed houses between the open rows of shops in the city center and bullet holes in the walls of many buildings. But the city also radiated something else: reconstruction and future. Construction was underway everywhere, collapsed buildings were being cleared, and the streets were lively. Despite the unmistakable traces of war, it was hard to imagine that the city had been almost completely destroyed after its liberation from Islamic State.
Islamic State had taken over the city in 2014 without a fight from allied Islamist groups, led by the Al-Nusra Front. In today’s context, it was primarily the founder of the Al-Nusra Front, Al-Jolani (or Al-Sharaa), who, with the support of Al-Qaeda, made the invasion of the Islamic State possible. Today, Al-Jolani is the self-proclaimed transitional president of Syria.
During a conversation over dinner in one of the high-rise buildings in the center of Raqqa, surrounded by Arab and Kurdish revolutionaries, Aziz tells me in the dim light of a flashlight how he woke up in his parents’ house on the morning of January 13, 2014, and suddenly saw the black flag of ISIS flying over the city. For him and many others, a nightmare came true, involving every form of brutality from prohibitions, arrests, torture, and murder to rape and enslavement of women.
After taking the city, Islamic State destroyed the city’s Shiite mosques. Many of the city’s Christian churches were also destroyed, and the Armenian Catholic Church was even converted into an Islamist recruitment center. Before the Syrian civil war, Christians made up just under 10% of the city’s population. The population was now at the mercy of ISIS’s brutality: public executions, extortion, and forced recruitment were the order of the day. Raqqa became the capital of the IS caliphate. Many of the attacks in Paris, Nice, Brussels, Manchester, and elsewhere were financed, planned, and organized from here.
Aziz had to go into hiding and only escaped by chance. After a night in which contacts from the SDF smuggled him out of the city, a commando unit from the ISIS secret service stood at the door of his parents’ house to arrest him. To this day, Aziz has dedicated himself to the struggle for a free and democratic Middle East and fights side by side with Kurdish comrades in northern and eastern Syria. He told us with pride how important it is for him to overcome the old divisions between Arabs and Kurds, which were created by nationalism and the Baath regime’s aggressive Arabization and anti-Kurdish policies.
On June 6, 2017, the operation to liberate Raqqa began. A multi-ethnic army, led by the SDF and involving many young people from Raqqa and the surrounding region, liberated the city after months of fighting, which military experts later described as the most intense urban combat since World War II. By the time Raqqa was liberated on October 20, 2017, hundreds of the region’s most valuable daughters and sons, Arabs, Kurds, and Armenians, had become martyrs side by side. It is also their sacrifice that laid the foundation for coexistence as what Rêber APO calls the Democratic Nation:
“While the nation-state is a form of power organization, the democratic nation represents a model of societal governance. The nation-state relies on the engineering of a uniform, homogeneous society, whereas the democratic nation is rooted in the heterogeneous nature of a multi-identity, multicultural society. The nation-state instrumentalizes identities for power, fostering conflict and pitting them against one another. In contrast, the democratic nation is grounded in the democratic relationships and solidarity among diverse identities and cultures, freeing identities from being tools of power. In summary, while the nation-state is power-centric, the democratic nation is based on the solidarity and self-governance of communities.“
Abdullah Öcalan (Manifesto for Peace and a Democratic Society, 2025)
It was also Rêber Apo who advised the Kurdish forces within the SDF to liberate Raqqa. Despite the foreseeable sacrifices, he was convinced that the brotherhood of Arabs and Kurds was essential for a new beginning in the Middle East, and that there was a corresponding responsibility to liberate the predominantly Arab areas from the occupation of the Islamic State.
Today, eight years later, hundreds of thousands have returned to Raqqa, and many of the institutions of the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria have their headquarters in the city. While schools, hospitals, the stadium, museum, mosques, and parks reopened in the first days after liberation, the first churches have been rebuilt in recent years, and academies of democratic civil society, youth centers of the Revolutionary Youth Movement, and many other projects have been implemented. The Zenobia organization, founded in 2016, organizes women in the region to enable them to live in safety and participate in social life. It has established numerous women’s cooperatives in Raqqa, including a large bakery and a cleaning products factory, which in turn finances many projects for women. While IS almost completely excluded women from public life, women now take on important tasks in all institutions and play a leading role in democratic self-government.
Of course, not all divides have been overcome, and particularly when it comes to women’s liberation, men and tribal elders of some Arab tribes remain skeptical of the revolution. One thing is clear, however: Arab women now have a clear perspective for a free life with a strong will. They have become a natural and fundamental part of the revolution. They are taking on responsibility in self-governing institutions, fighting in the ranks of the SDF, and are a symbol for the future of women throughout Syria.
The fact that brotherhood between Kurds and Arabs is essential for the future of the region is also underlined by the letter that Rêber Apo recently sent directly to the Arab tribes of the region from the prison island of Imrali, calling for Kurdish-Arab unity:
“The friendship between our peoples has lasted for centuries. Today, with your leadership, it takes on a new political and social significance.“ Rêber Apo emphasizes what this relationship should be based on today and how important the participation of Arabs is in defending the region: ”All people should be equal and free, live together, and govern themselves. Equality and justice must be built on this foundation. Kurds and Arabs should live together. This also depends on your support for the SDF. Your support for the SDF is of great importance and significance.” Today, at least half of the SDF fighters are of Arab descent, and the predominantly Arab regions of Raqqa, Deir Ez-Zor, and Tabqa are part of the self-administration. Women in these regions, in particular, have become pioneers of the Democratic Nation. Even though sleeper cells of the Islamic State continue to pose a security risk and media campaigns by Turkey and others target the alliances between Arabs and Kurds, a few weeks ago we sat down again with revolutionary youth, Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, Basques, Portuguese, and Germans over dinner and discussed how much the Democratic Nation in North-East-Syria has already become a reality.
Some days ago, I attended the demonstration of the Young Women’s Movement in Raqqa. Kurdish and Arab women, some in military clothing, some veiled in burkas, demonstrated together. As different as their appearances were, it became clear in the young women’s shared chants: all of these women draw their strength from Rêber Apo and organize themselves according to his philosophy of “Jin Jiyan Azadî – Women Life Freedom.” This image is the result of a serious struggle.
On the day of the anniversary of Raqqa’s liberation, we bow our heads to those who lost their lives in the liberation of the city and look with awe at the achievements of the revolution. Side by side, young people from the region in particular have overcome the divisions between Arabs and Kurds, thereby changing the fate of the entire region. Today, Raqqa is liberated, but the road to the liberation of the Middle East is still long and unpredictable. However, undeniably important steps have been taken in recent years. Rêber Apo’s vision of a democratic nation has become a reality in North East Syria and shows the way to a democratic Middle East.
Internationalists who fell during the liberation of Raqqa and in battles around Raqqa:
Ryan Lock (Berxwedan Givara)
Nazzareno Tassone (Agîr Ararat)
Muzaffer Kandemir (Doğan Kırefe)
Paolo Todd (Kawa Amed)
Albert Avery Harrington (Çekdar Rojava/Neshro Hiro)
Ulaş Bayraktaroğlu (Mehmet Kurnaz)
Ayşe Deniz Karacagil (Destan Temmuz)
Hasan Ali
Robert Grodt (Demhat Goldman)
Luke Rutter (Soro Zinar)
Nicholas Warden (Rodi Deysie)
David Taylor (Zafer Qereçox)
Fermun Çırak (Nubar Ozanyan/Orhan Bakırcıyan)
Gökhan Taşyakan (Ulaş Adalı)
Frédéric Henri Georges Demonchaux (Gabar Légionnaire)
Mehmet Aksoy (Firaz Dag)
Jack Holmes (Şoreş Amanos)
Oliver Hall (Canşêr Zagros)
