The ‘Şehîd Ronahî Youth Centre’ will open on the 28th of January 2017 with a ceremony in the capital of England, London.

The ceremony is organised by Ciwanên Azad (Free Youth Movement), Jinên Ciwanên Azad UK (Young Free Women’s Movement), YXK UK (Kurdistan Students Union UK) and JXK UK (Women Students for Kurdistan).

Ciwanên Azad UK invited everyone to the opening of the ‘Şehîd Ronahî Youth Centre’ at the Kurdish Community Centre in Green Lanes, describing it as a historic step for the Free Youth Movement (Ciwanen Azad) in the UK as well as the Europe wide Free Youth Movement.

Related statement by Ciwanên Azad UK said the followings:

“We are experiencing a time in which capitalist modernity is fluttering for survival. In its centuries-old hegemony, capitalist modernity and its nation-state system have failed humanity. The youth have been one of the most enslaved sections of society by the patriarchy, strengthened and deepened by Capitalist-Modernity. The dynamic creativity of the youth are considered a threat by the state, this is why young people continue to be hungry for change.

Our Youth Centre will serve as an autonomous space for Kurdish youth and their comrades in London. The resistances across Kurdistan is a source of hope for all revolutionaries around the world, therefore, we will be opening this Youth Centre for youth to organise, to better defend themselves. Through learning the philosophy of our ideological leader Abdullah Ocalan, Democratic Modernity, young people will turn all fields of their lives into fields of self-defence and fields of resistance.

The autonomous Youth Centre is a reaction to the traumas diaspora-youth are inflicted with. The gang culture, drug abuse and suicide rate of the youth who are children of migrants are no coincidence. These tragedies are a result of a lack of belonging, this is a particularly tragic reality for Kurdish Youth, usually forced to migrate from a country in which they had to live their identities and cultures in secret, to a country in which they still do not belong to. In many cases, the youth are susceptible to the glitz and glamour of Capitalist-Modernity and start living meaningless lives, in the false name of individual ‘freedom’.

‘Freedom is to fight’, Sakine Cansiz once said. Freedom is to fight for a meaningful existence. We invite you to explore that meaning together. We have decided to name this Youth Centre after one of the martyrs of the Paris massacre, Leyla Saylemez (nom de guerre: Ronahî). Ronahî grew up in the heart of Europe, in Germany and met with the Kurdish Freedom Movement in her University years. Joining the resistance of the Kurdish Youth Movement in her teens, she started her rebellion against the system she grew up in. Especially as a young woman, she showed us all how to fight against this brutal system which attempts to enslave the spirit of the youth. Along with 2 other comrades, Sakine Cansiz and Fidan Dogan, she was assassinated in 2013 as a result of a collaboration between International powers and the Turkish state. This political assassination proves the power of the youth and women and how much they are seen as a threat by the system. For this reason, with the opening of our Şehîd Ronahî Youth Centre, we promise to carry the torch of freedom left behind by our comrades of resistance. We pledge to exterminate colonialism with revolutionary revenge!”

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Date: Saturday 28th January 2017

Time: 15.00

Place: Kurdish Community Centre (11 Portland Gardens, N4 1HU)

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Programme: OPENING CEREMONY

FILM SCREENING

SERHADO

KOMA ZELAL