Armenian Women's Union established in North and East Syria

The Armenian Women’s Union in North and East Syria was established in a congress held by the Armenian Social Council in late August in al Hasakah, Northeast Syria.

Two elected officials of the Union, Helen Erdimyan and Arpi Kasparyan, spoke to Ozgur Gelecek about their motivations and objectives.

Erdimyan, Executive Committee member of the Armenian Women’s Union, said that they had held nearly 80 meetings in the villages around Deir ez-Zor, Qamisli, Hasakah and Zirgan before the congress to listen to the people and to discuss the prospect of an Armenian women's organization in the region, and that those meetings led to positive responses.

Asked about the slogan, "Armenian women's organization emerges in Rojava," Erdimyan said:

"We defended the lands in which we were already living before the Rojava revolution. Then we have tried to take part, with our own identities, in that revolution and in the building of the women's revolution. Now we have set off to build the revolution of the Armenian women. The reason we chose that slogan is because we are a people that set out on the road not yesterday, but 107 years ago, as a people that went through a genocide."

Arpi Kasparyan, also an Executive Committee member of the Armenian Women’s Union, said:

"We, as the residents of Rojava, especially as the Armenian women who live here, know what happened to the Armenian people, to the Armenian women 107 years ago. The entire world knows about it. However, we choose not to lament on what the Armenian women lived in the past, but to join in solidarity, and to declare that we are determined to build up our strength through unity to move forth. We have no doubt that we will prevail."